
Class pE,t>fc>Q 

Unnk M5 W3 



PRESENTED BY 



THE VERSIFICATION 



OF 



KING HORN 



a sr>i00ertatton 



SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OP UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 

IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

1899 



BY 



HENEY S. WEST 
•1 



BALTIMORE 

J. H. FURST COMPANY 

1907 



Gift 
- j 











CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Preface v 

The Geste of Kyng Horn vii 

Other Texts Studied x 

Bibliography xi 

The Versification of King Horn. 

Chapter I. 1 

The Double Descent of Modern English Verse. § 1. 
The Crux in Early Middle English. § 2. 
The " Otfrid in England " Controversy. § 3 

Chapter II 6 

The Heart of the Middle English Verse Crux is King Horn. § 1. 

Schipper's " Dreihebigkeit " of King Horn. §2. 

The Plausibility of Schipper's Theory of the Horn Verse. § 3. 

Chapter III 12 

Schipper's " Dreihebigkeit" is after all Nothing but Three-beat. § 1. 
His Alleged Corroborative Text does not Support his Contention. § 2. 

Chapter IV 17 

Why not Find in the Horn Short Line a Two-stress Ehythm ? § 1. 

How a Free Two-stress Reading of the Poem will Afford a Unifying 
Ehythm. § 2. 

Further Analysis of Horn Lines and Couplets on a Two-stress Basis with 
Wholly Satisfying Results. § 3. 

King Horn does not Require, seems even to Forbid, a Three-beat Scan- 
sion ; and Readily Submits to a Two-stress Reading. § 4. 

Chapter V 21 

Historic Presumption Favors Finding in the Horn Short Line a Two- 
stress Rhythm. § 1. 

Incomplete Alliteration in King Horn does not Disprove its Claim of 
Being in Stress-verse. § 2. 

The Alliteration in the Horn Points to a Two-stress Reading of its Lines. 
§3. 

Comparison of the Horn Couplet with Middle English Verse Clearly in 
the National Four-stress Free-rhythm Establishes their Metrical 
Likeness. § 4. 

iii 



IV CONTENTS. 

Chapter VI 49 

The One Dissimilarity between the Verse of King Horn and the Later 

Free-rhythm. § 1. 
The Preservation of a Kecurring Shorter Line in the Later Free-rhythm 

Not Due to Conservatism. § 2. 
The Earlier Lyric Proves the Shorter Line in the Cauda to be Due to 

Kime Couee. § 3. 
Comparison of King Horn and The Luxury of Women. § 4. 
How the Native Free-rhythm could be Cast into Eime Couee without 

Systematic Alliteration. § 5. 
King Horn the Natural Outcome of Anglo-Saxon Tendencies and its 

Author's Environment. § 6. 

Chapter VII 64 

The Seven Types of the King Horn Verse. § 1. 
The Horn Hypermetric Lines. § 2. 
Percentages of the Several Types. § 3. 
Management of Alliteration in King Horn. § 4. 
Conclusion. § 5. 



Vita Auctoeis 89 

Postscript 91 



PREFACE. 



In grateful acknowledgment I wish to say that I was prompted 
to the following study by Prof. James W. Bright. During a 
graduate course on the history of English versification, conducted 
in 1897-98, Professor Bright argued that Schipper' s "dreihe- 
big" scansion of King Horn is unnecessary and illogical; and 
suggested that his own view of the verse of this poem might be 
worked out as a new dissertation. This I undertook to do : and, 
while Professor Bright is not to be held responsible for the details 
of my monograph nor for the special process by which I attempt to 
controvert Schipper, I am happy in knowing that my preceptor is 
in full accord with the main thesis here advanced ; namely, that 
the short line of King Horn is a two-stress movement in English 
free-rhythm, that the Horn couplet is in its internal structure only 
a regular Middle English expansion of the Anglo-Saxon four- 
stress long-line. 

After this acknowledgment I must enter a disclaimer of obliga- 
tion in another quarter. A Yale dissertation presented for the 
doctoral degree one year ago by Mr. C. M. Lewis [The Foreign 
Sources of Modern English Versification, Halle, 1898] contains the 
following passages on the verse of King Horn : — 

" Next we find that the short lines thus formed, by virtue of 
the tendency to multiplication of syllables already mentioned, are 
by no means limited to two accents, but commonly take three or 
even four [Schipper, Metr. I, 180 f.]. With deference, however, 
to the views of Schipper (and others quoted by him), it must be 
insisted that the third and fourth accents in these early verses are 
not essential features of the rhythm. In such a passage as the 
following, for example, 

Hi wSnden to wisse 

Of here lif to misse. 

Al the day and al the night 

Til hit sprang day light 

King Horn 121-4. 
V 



VI PREFACE. 

it is clear that if we regard the first verse as having two essential 
accents, the second three, and the third four, the rhythm ceases at 
once to be homogeneous. We should read such a passage with 
especial regard to the two principle [sic] stresses in each line ; — 
they are the ones that determine the rhythm ; — and the subsidiary 
stresses will then be found to cause no disturbance." And further 
on : " King Horn on the other hand exhibits more fidelity to 
English tradition, clinging still, in theory, to the original two 
accents : but its tendency to verses of three or four actual accents 
assimilates it more or less closely to the Pater Noster, and in 
either of the poems many lines can be pointed out which might 
just as well have been introduced in the other" [pp. 93-4, 
and 96]. 

In spite of Mr. Lewis's words about " the subsidiary stresses " 
and the " verses of three or four actual accents " in King Horn, I 
quote the foregoing sentences in order to credit him with having 
uttered even so mild a demur to Schipper's treatment of the Horn 
verse. But I would say that I received for my own study no 
suggestion whatever from Mr. Lewis's work. I did not even read 
it until some time after I had made the first draft of my argu- 
ment, and had formulated my seven types of the Horn rhythm. 
I gladly add, however, that Mr. Lewis's dissertation is a valuable 
contribution to the historical study of English prosody. 

Henry S. West. 
Johns Hopkins Univeesity, 
May 1, 1899. 



THE GESTE OF KYNG HORN. 



The Geste of Kyng Horn, perhaps the very oldest of all the 
extant Middle English metrical romances, is an epic lay of the 
early part of the thirteenth century, composed in the South-East 
of England by an author now wholly unknown. It is preserved 
in three manuscripts : 

(1) University Library, Cambridge : MS. Gg. 4. 27. 2. 

(2) Bodleian Library, Oxford : MS. Laud, Misc. 108. 

(3) British Museum, London : MS. Harleian, 2253. 

These manuscript versions are commonly referred to as C, O, 
and H respectively. The oldest and best of the three is C. 

The poem has been printed a number of times as follows : 

1802 — Ritson, Ancient English Metrical Romances. 
1845 — Michel, Horn et Bimenhild (Banna tyne Club). • 
1866— Lumby, King Horn etc. (E. E. T. S. 14) 
1867 — Morris, Specimens of Early English. 
1867 — Maetzner, Altenglische Sprachproben. 
1872 — Horstmann, Herrig's Archiv, vol. L. 
1881 — Wissmann, Lied von King Horn (Quellen u. Forscbun- 
gen, xlv) l 

In making the present investigation I first scanned out com- 
pletely the C text as given (with some additions from O and H) 
by Morris ; and this I quote as m C, with the line numbering 
found in the Morris and Skeat Specimens, vol. I. Furthermore, 
in giving examples of my types [Chap, vn] of the two-stress 
movement of the poem, I constantly quote from the m C text. 

But in working up my argument on the Horn problem, I found 
it more convenient to make use of Wissmann's edition. It is true 
that Wissmann's text is a " berichtigt '' text : that is, in an 

1 A still later edition is noted in my Postscript, p. 91. 

vii 



Vlll THE GESTE OF KYNG HORN. 

attempt to restore a reading that shall be closer to the original 
than is any one of the extant manuscripts, he produced a compo- 
site text in normalized spelling with lines more or leveled between 
the expansion of one manuscript and the conciseness of another. 
Moreover, it was an important object with Wissmann to present, 
as far as possible, lines that would scan easily as " Otfrid verse." 
On the other hand, however, Wissmann did consistently keep 
close to MS. C ; 1 and I had in his edition the very great conveni- 
ence of seeing at a glance the variant readings of all the manu- 
scripts. 

Accordingly all my citations by number only (except in Chap. 
Vii) are from Wissmann' s text ; and where I give a line number 
followed by a letter (C, H, or O) the reference is to the variant, 
or the ms. C, reading at that point. Again, where an extended 
passage from O or H is given among the variants, and Wissmann 
cites the lines with the numbering of their own MS. (as at pp. 
45-7), I refer to these lines as O 910, etc., and H 891, etc. 

Morris also, one readily perceives, has "corrected" his text 
(note, for example, the passage at 11. 1338 f.) in accordance with 
his assumed three-beat reading of its verse [see Specimens, I, 
Introd., p. xxxviii] . Hence, before beginning my metrical analysis 
of the poem, I restored the C text to a more uncorrected state by 
the following alterations of the m C print : 

1. Dele Morris's insertions in 11. 2 (the dative ending -e, 
which he added without brackets to avoid juxtaposed stresses), 86, 
124, 192, 194, 241, 264, 283, 288, 335, 344, 350, 352, 370, 
393, 420, 435, 449, 469, 519, 579, 679, 683, 686, 820, 858, 
923, 1010, 1034, 1074, 1090, 1180, 1186, 1201, 1210, 1246, 
1279, 1281, 1314, 1338, 1340 (icom pret. t; cf. 39, 1396, 1526), 
1341, 1347, 1348, 1350, 1407, 1417, 1487, 1490. 

2. Leave MS. C unchanged in 11. 41 (ofherde), 414, 476, 579, 
672, 718, 742, 1216, 1220. 

On my own part, however, I make the following emendations 



1 Bei einer kritischen Behandlung des Textes werden wir also am besten stets 
von C ausgehen, und nur begriindeten Erwagungen folgend die Lesart der andern 
BBS. aufnehmen. — Wissmann, L. v. K. H. y s. xi. 



THE GESTE OF KYNG HORN. IX 

of the m C text: 1. 42 read answerde (cf. 199); 1. 568 dele telle 
(following O and H) ; 1. 763 read flette for sette (following O and 
H) ; 1. 823 read sleh for ouercome]> (following H) ; 1. 840 dele 
men, and read cristene (following O and H) ; 1. 1149 read to 
instead of for (following O and H) ; 1. 1337 read seme for have 
(following O and H) ; 1. 1358 read so for king (following O) ; 
1. 1434 dele men (following O and H). 

For the present study, therefore, the texts to be used are — 
R. Morris, Specimens of Early English, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1887, 
p. 237 f. 

T. Wissmann, Das Lied von King Horn, Strassburg, 1881 
(Quellen u. Forschungen, xlv). 



OTHER TEXTS STUDIED. 



Besides King Horn the following texts have been examined. 
The editors' prefaces and introductions to these texts contain 
some important metrical observations. 

Alexander Fragment (Alex. A). E. E. T. S. extra 1. 

Alexander and Dindimus (Alex. B). E. E. T. S. extra 31. 

Wars of Alexander (Alex. C), E. E. T. S. extra 47. 

Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl., 2253, edited by K. 
Boddeker. Berlin, 1878. 

Awntyrs of Arthure. Madden, Syr Gawayne, etc. 

Bannatyne Club, 1839. 
Sir Degrevant. Halliwell, Thornton Romances, 

Camden Society, 1844. 
Destruction of Troy. E. E. T. S. 39 and 56. 

The Feest. Hazlitt, Early Popular Poetry of England, 1866. 

Gawayn and the Green Knight. E. E. T. S. 4. 

Golagrus and Gawain. Anglia, n, 410. 

Joseph of Arimathie. E. E. T. S. 44. 

Morte Arthure. E. E. T. S. 8. 

Sir Perceval of Galles. Halliwell, Thornton Romances, 

Camden Society, 1844. 
The Pistill of Susan (or Susanna). Anglia, I, 93. 

Rauf Coi^ear. E. E. T. S. extra 39. 

Richard the Redeless. E. E. T. S. 54. 

Rouland and Vernagu. E. E. T. S. extra 39. 

The Towneley Plays. E. E. T. S. extra 71. 

William of Palerne. E. E. T. S. extra 1. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Any theory of the versification of King Horn must take into 
account the related rhythms of preceding and succeeding times, the 
Anglo-Saxon verse and the Middle English alliterative verse. In 
the following list, therefore, will be found some books and articles 
not specifically concerned with our poem ; but they guide one in 
that wider survey which is a needful preliminary to the thorough 
discussion of our special subject. It seemed, moreover, quite 
important to insert a number of references on the "Otfrid in 
England " controversy. 

(a) General Works. 

E. Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik, Halle, 1893. An admirable 
summary of Sievers' doctrine is to be found in Bright' s Anglo- 
Saxon Reader, 3rd ed., 1894, p. 229 f. (N. Y., Holt & Co.). 

J. Schipper, Grundriss der Englischen Metrik, Wien u. Leipzig, 
1895 (being v. II of the Wiener Beitrage zur Englischen 
Philologie). 

J. Schipper, Altenglische Metrik, Bonn, 1881 (being part i of 
his Englische Metrik). 

E. Guest, History of English Rhythms, new edition by Skeat, 

London, 1882. 

F. B. Gummere, Handbook of Poetics, 3rd ed., Boston, 1891. 

H. Paul, Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, 2nd ed., Strass- 
burg, 1893. See articles in v. n : by Ten Brink, p. 516 f. ; 
by Brandl, p. 619 f. ; by Sievers, p. 862 f. ; by Luick, p. 
994 f. and p. 1009 f. ; by Schipper, p. 1030 f. 

H. Morley, English Writers, v. in, London, 1888. 

G. Korting, Encyklopaedie u. Methodologie d. Englischen Philol- 

ogie, p. 388, Heilbronn, 1888. 

1 A few more titles are added in the Postscript, p. 91. 

xi 



Xll BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

G. Korting, Grundriss der Geschichte der Englischen Litteratur, 

2nd ed., Miinster, 1893. Notes on metre from Aelfric to 

Langland, p. 63 to p. 159 passim. 
J. Storm, Englische Philologie, v. n, p. 1027, Leipzig, 1896. 
H. Sweet, History of English Sounds, 2nd ed., p. 163, Oxford, 

1888. 
R. Wiilker, Grundriss zur Geschichte der Angelsachischen Lit- 

teratur, p. 108, Leipzig, 1885. 

(b) Special Studies. 

Anglia: — Trautmann, I. 115 ; Rosenthal, I. 414; Trautmann, n. 
153, 407; Wissmann, iv. 342; Einenkel, IV. Anz. 91 
Einenkel, v. 105, and Anz. 30, 139 ; Schroer, v. 238 
Wissmann, v. 466 ; Schipper, v. Anz. 88 ; Trautmann, v 
Anz. Ill ; Einenkel, vi. Anz. 64 ; Holthaus, VI. Anz. 104 
Einenkel, vn. Anz. 200; Trautmann, vn. Anz. 211 
Menthel, viii. Anz. 49 ; Trautmann, viii. Anz. 144 
Schipper, viii. Anz. 246 ; Menthel, x. 105 ; Luick, xi. 392 
553 ; Luick, xn. 437 ; Teichmann, xin. 140 ; Trautmann 
xviii. 83. 

Anglia, Beiblatt : — Luick, iv. 193; Trautmann, v. 87; Luick, 
xii. 33. 

Anglia, Mittheilungen : — Luick, iv. 200. 

W. Bock, Zur Destruction of Troy, Halle, 1883. 

A. Brandl, Litteraturblatt f. German, u. Roman. Philologie, iv, 
132. 

J. Borsch, Metrik u. Poetik d. Owl and Nightingale, Miinster, 
1883. 

J. Caro, Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild. Eine Untersuchung, 
Breslau, 1886. 

J. Caro, Englische Studien, xn. 323. 

C. L. Crow, Zur Geschichte d. Kurzen Reimpaars im Mittel- 
englischen, Gottingen, 1892. 

E. Einenkel, The Early Eng. Life of St. Katherine, E. E. T. S. 
80. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. Xlll 

E. Einenkel, Uber Yerfasser einiger Neuags. Schriften, Leipzig, 

1881. 
E. Einenkel, Englische Studien, ix. 368. 

A. J. Ellis, Trans. Philological Society, London, 1875-6. 442. 
E. Gropp, On the Language of the Proverbs of Alfred, Halle, 

1879. 
H. F. Heath, Trans. Philological Society, London, 1891-4. 375. 
G. Heesch, Uber Sprache u. Versbau des Debate of Body and Soul, 

Kiel, 1884. 
E. Jessen, Zeitschrift f. Deutsche Philologie, n. 138. 
M. Kaluza, Studien zum German. Alliterationsvers, Heft 1 & 2, 

Berlin, 1894. 
M. Kaluza, Englische Studien, xvi. 169. 

E. Kolbing, Englische Studien, vi. 153. 

B. Kuhnke, Die allit. Langzeile in Sir Gawayn and the Green 

Knight, Weimar, 1899 (to be complete as Heft 4 of Kaluza' s 
Studien zum Germ. Allitsv.). 

C. M. Lewis, The Foreign Sources of Modern English Versifi- 

cation, Halle, 1898. 
J. Lawrence, Chapters on Allit. Verse, London, 1893. 
H. Liibke, The Aunters of Arthur at the Tarnewathelan, Berlin, 

1883. 

F. J. Mather, Jr., Pubis. Mod. Language Association of America, 

xn (new s. v). 
W. Mitford, Principles of Harmony and of Mechanism of Verse, 

2nd ed., London, 1874. 
The .Nation, New York, Oct. 12, 1882. 
O. Noltemeier, Uber The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane, 

Marburg, 1889. 
E. Penner, Herrig's Archiv, 83. 211. 
J. Schipper, Englische Studien, v. 488 ; ix. 184; x. 192. 
J. Schipper, Litteraturblatt f. Germ. u. Rom. Philologie, III. 369. 
W. Scholle, Quellen u. Forschungen, lii. 
A. Schhiter, Herrig's Archiv, 71. 357. 
W. "W. Skeat, Essay on Allit. Poetry, in Hales and Furnivall, 

Bishop Percy's Folio ms., vol. in, London, 1868. 



XIV BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

A. Stiruming, Englische Studien, i. 351. 

G. J. Tamson, Word Stress in English, Halle, 1898. 

(being Heft 3 of Morsbach's Studien z. Engl. Philologie) 

B. Ten Brink, Englische Studien vi. 150. 

C. Thiem, Das Alteng, Gedicht King Horn, Rostock, 1874. 
M. Tonndorf, Rauf Coil^ear Untersuchungen, Halle, 1893. 
M. Tonndorf, The Taill of Eauf Coi^ear, Berlin, 1894. 

W. Wachter, Untersuch. u. Roland and Yernagu, and Otuel, 

Berlin, 1885. 
T. Wissmann, King Horn Untersuchungen, Quellen u. Forschun- 

gen, xvi. 
T. Wissmann, Litteraturblatt in. 133, 292. 
J. Zupitza, Anzeiger f. Deutsches Alterthum, iv. 149 ; ix. 181. 



THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Double Descent of Modern English Verse. § 1. 
The Crux in Early Middle English. § 2. 
The "Otfrid in England" Controversy. § 3. 

§ 1. The story of the English art of verse from Widsith to 
Kipling is no unentangled narrative of a single thread. On the 
contrary, modern English versification is a mingled current, not 
to be rightly understood until it is traced back into its widely 
differing tributaries ; to whose fundamental unlikeness is due that 
escape from a repressive law of strict syllabism which gave to our 
verse in the hands of Shakespeare and his successors its glorious 
variety of movement. To seek thus the origin of the verse molds 
into which the English folk cast their poetry, and then to trace 
the historic descent of their favorite rhythmic forms, indigenous 
and imported, through the successive poetical monuments of Eng- 
lish literature, is obviously a pursuit no less fascinating in itself 
than indispensable for a full aesthetic appreciation of English 
poetry. Important though and inviting as is the historical study 
of English versification, yet the way of the investigator is beset 
with many tangles, very hard to unravel ; and all the excellent 
work already done, notably by the German scholars, in this field 
has left still many a difficulty unsolved. 

However, from amidst the dark tangles of the subject and the 
illuminating wrangles of the doctors, the one comprehensive fact 
of the history of English versification has come forth with the 
greatest clearness : there are plainly two streams of verse coursing 
down English literature. The one is the native Anglo-Saxon 
long-line, inherited from the prehistoric period of Germanic unity. 

1 



I THE VERIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

It is a verse in free-rhythm l moving on four primary stresses ; 2 
but successive lines are not at all confined to equal syllabic vol- 
ume. Originally the only verse employed by the English, the 
national four-stress long-line, was, in the opinion of most schol- 
ars — with the notable exception of Schipper — quite suppressed 3 
for a long period after the Norman Conquest, and is hardly to be 
discerned again until its remarkable revival in the fourteenth 
century. 4 

The other stream of verse was introduced into English litera- 
ture by the influence of French and Latin verse forms. It is the 
imported current of beat-verse, coming into vogue after the Con- 
quest, in a restricted rhythm : that is, with regularly spaced 
accents and at least approximately equalized syllabism. The 
orderliness and smoothness of the new prosody recommended it 
above the growing lawlessness of Anglo-Saxon art, then fallen 
into decay : consequently, ever since its introduction into Britain, 
from the eleventh century to the present, beat-verse has been 
dominant in English poetry. 

This fundamental fact of a double prosody in English literature 
since the Conquest unveils the formerly incomprehensible mys- 
teries of Middle English versification : for an order and a method 
are now discoverable' where once students of Early English saw 
only chaos. Especially certain do we now feel about the true 
rhythmic types of that large body of poetry in the revived allit- 
erative verse, rimed as well as unrimed, which dates from the end 
of the thirteenth century and is seen nourishing during more than 
two centuries. 5 In spite though of the lucid and interesting man- 

1 My distinction of two-stress, four -stress, stress-verse, free-rhythm as against two-beat, 
four-beat, beat-verse, beat-measures, will be readily understood by those acquainted 
with the terminology employed by recent metrical investigators : for example, I 
use four-stress exactly as Schipper uses "vierhebig," and four-beat for his "vier- 
taktig." 

2 It is a fundamental assumption of the present study that Sievers' exposition of 
Anglo-Saxon verse is the correct one. 

8 At least, they say, no documents worthy of note are extant. 

*See in Paul's Grundriss the treatment of ME. verse by Luick, v. II, p. 991 f. 

5 We adopt Luick' s scansion of the ME. alliterative poetry. See his articles in 
Anglia, XL 392 f. and 553 f. ; and XII, 437 f. ; and also in Paul's Grundriss, LT, 
1009 f. See Schipper, Grdriss, d, Eng. Metr., p. 75 f. 



THE CRUX IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH. 3 

ner in which the underlying double basis of English metrics can 
be outlined for a study of the historic descent of English verse 
from its two sources, native and foreign, there falls squarely across 
the path of the investigator a set of poetical monuments whose 
versification has proved so deep a crux that the most penetrating 
efforts, even of the Germans, have not yet resulted in scanning 
them satisfactorily. 

§ 2. The crux in the course of English verse lies in the period 
of two and a half centuries immediately succeeding the Norman 
Conquest. The imported beat- verse, beginning in Anglo-Norman 
poems, can be clearly traced down English literature from Orm 
through Chaucer to the present day. But there remains to us, 
belonging to the period between the Conquest and the fourteenth 
century, also a considerable body of versified literature not in beat- 
verse, of which Layamon's Brut and the metrical romance of King 
Horn are the two conspicuous documents. What of the versifica- 
tion of these twelfth and thirteenth century poems that are not in 
beat- verse ? 

To find a wholly satisfying answer to this question is difficult. 
The monuments themselves present on first examination, a most 
ambiguous appearance : they really seem, one is tempted to say, to 
be wavering between the old English free-rhythm and the new 
Romance measured rhythm. So difficult indeed has it been found 
hitherto to scan these poems either as beat- verse or else as plainly 
descendants of the Anglo-Saxon free-rhythm, that a special theory 
has been advanced to explain them. 

§ 3. The contention supported by the almost unanimous con- 
sensus of the competent in Germany is this : just these Early 
English poems, which cannot possibly be in Romance beat-verse, 
which appear to the Germans (except Schipper) to be quite as 
certainly not direct descendants of the Anglo-Saxon verse, belong 
in a body to a third system of versification, which is the English 
exact parallel of the "Otfrid verse" of Germany. The promul- 
gation of this theory has elicited a controversy, by no means 
the least interesting among the many wholesome discussions that 
have arisen out of the new English philology. Against the 
numerous ardent supporters of the view that the poems of the Brut- 



4 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

King Horn group represent metrically "Otfrid in England/' one 
great opponent has maintained a conspicuous, if not a firmly un- 
yielding resistance. 

Into the details of this interesting contention we cannot enter ; 
but the " Otfrid in England " controversy is so important that a 
clear statement of its present status is desirable. 

There are now two schools of opinion as to the metrical charac- 
ter of the group of poems, having the Brut and King Horn for its 
nucleus. 

1. According to the doctrine of the majority (represented by 
Luick's article in Paul's Grdriss. 6 and by Sweet's paragraph in his 
Hist, of Kng. Sounds, p. 163) after the Anglo-Saxon period was 
brought to a close, there followed a blank of two centuries, so far 
as extant documents can testify, in the history of the native free- 
rhythm in the four-stress long-line ; then at the end of the thir- 
teenth century and in the beginning of the fourteenth the old 
fashion of alliteration and with it the old free-rhythm was revived 
with wonderful enthusiasm and effect. Just in the interval when 
the native rhythm was suppressed, arose and flourished the English 
" Otfrid verse " ; and it is in this peculiar rhythm that the Brut- 
Horn group of poems is composed. Ingenious hypotheses are 
offered to explain : first, how the original English free-rhythm 
was preserved from extinction during the two centuries of its sup- 
pression, so as to be at hand for revival in the fourteenth century ; 
and secondly, how the English "Otfrid verse" developed from 
latent native elements, or whence it was imported. 

2. Against the confident opinion of the majority Schipper firmly 
and rightly (it is here assumed) insists upon his own opposing 
view. He has pierced the heart of the " Otfrid in England " con- 
tention by his argument against the unwarranted assumption of 
the existence in twelfth and thirteenth century English of a word 
accent like that commonly believed to be present in the Old High 
German "reimvers." Schipper contends for the same natural 
word stress in Middle English as that assumed for the basis of 
Sievers' five-type rhythm of Anglo-Saxon verse. In a foot-note of 

6 Grundriss, II, 994 f . 



THE " OTFRID IN ENGLAND " CONTROVERSY. 5 

his new Metrik is found Schipper's final judgment on " Otfrid in 
England" : "Nach unserer Uberzeugung ist der Otfrid' sche Vers in 
England niemals nachgebildet und in alt- oder mittelenglischer Zeit 
dort uberhaupt nicht bekannt geworden" \_Grdriss. d. Engl. 
Metr., 1895, p. 75] J 

Schipper's view requires no fanciful hypotheses. The whole 
body of verse classified in Paul's Grundriss as the English " Otfrid 
verse " is according to Schipper " die weitere Entwickelung der 
alliterierenden Langzeile freier Bichtung " \_Ibid., p. 54.] ; but it 
is to be divided into two sections representing a less developed and 
a more developed stage. The one is the immediate descendant of 
the Anglo-Saxon four-stress line, though here the verse is growing 
constantly looser and more irregular as it surrenders the strict 
Anglo-Saxon rules of alliteration and assumes more and more eud- 
rime under the influence of contemporary beat- verse : at this stage 
stand the Proverbs of Alfred and the Brut. The other part is that 
new fully-rimed oblique offshoot from the direct national line of 
descent, the distinct " dreihebig " verse of King Horn. 

It is assumed as a premise of the present study that Schipper's 
argument on Middle English word accent is wholly correct, and 
has never been shaken by the adherents of the opposing school ; 
and that the " Otfrid in England " theory is an unverified and 
untenable hypothesis. The question remaining for the present 
investigation is therefore this : has Schipper himself hit upon the 
correct reading of the Horn ? The attempt will be here made to 
show that he has not set forth the true rhythm of King Horn. 



See also Schipper's foot-note in Paul's Grundriss, II, p. 1021. 



THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Heart of the Middle English Verse Crux is King 

Horn. § 1. 
Schipper' s " Dreihebigkeit " of King Horn. § 2. 
The ,Plausibility of Schipper's Theory of the Horn 

Verse. § 3. 

§ 1. The most cursory view of the "Otfrid in England" con- 
troversy makes it evident that in the last analysis King Horn 
forms the heart of this tangled knot of apparently mixed Germanic 
and Romance versification, of uncertain word accent and sentence 
stress. The Horn is the most Otfrid-like of the whole group of 
poems; and but for this monument the " Otfrid in England" 
theory would, in all likelihood, be deprived of the faintest shadow 
of plausibility. 8 Again it is in King Horn that even Schipper 
sees the national long-line, under the influence of systematic rime, 
take a decided turn away from the " strenge richtung" of the 
native free-rhythm : in this poem, says Schipper, the " lang- 
zeile freier Richtung . . . verlauft nun sehr einfach und wie nach 
seiner bisherigen Geschichte kaum anders zu erwarten war" [6r. 
d. E. Metrik, p. 71] . 9 Thus the important position held by this 
romance in any discussion of Middle English metrics justifies the 
present study ; and our first task will be to subject Schipper' s 
treatment of the Horn verse to a critical examination. For this 
purpose we shall use his latest deliverance on the subject, the 
Grundriss der Englisehen Metrik of 1895, rather than his earlier 
exposition in the Altenglische Metrik, 1 881 (Eng. Metr. I). 

8 Note how Luick makes K. Horn the perfected form of "Otfrid in England," 
Paul's Grdriss., II, p. 1004, § 17. See also Wissmann, Horn Unters., p. 56, §5. 

9 But in King Horn the " freie richtung" of the alliterative long-line came to 
its end, says Schipper ; while the conservative form lived on for three hundred 
years longer [ibid., p. 75]. 



§ 2. Schipper' s final opinion on the versification of King Horn, 
expressed in a single sentence, is this : 

" Die vorwiegende Versform, in welcher dies Gedicht geschrieben 
ist, sind, ahnlich wie bei Layamon in der zweiten Halfte seines 
Werkes, Verse von drei Hebungen mit klingendem Ausgang." 
[G. d. E. M. y p. 71.] 

Unquestionably the prevailing type of the Horn verse has a 
movement similar to that in a large part of the Brut But is it 
right to scan such verses as Schipper does, and to treat them as if 
composed in a rhythm of three stresses (drei Hebungen) ? 

The moment King Horn is read as Schipper directs, it seems to 
run as a very limping beat- verse of three beats, because : first, 
there is a more or less regular alternation of stressed and unstressed 
syllables ; and secondly, the logically weakest, even the wholly 
non-significant words of the sentence — unemphatic pronouns, 
negatives, verbs, especially the substantive verb, prepositions, and 
conjunctions — are fully stressed in order to get a third ictus into 
every verse. 

For example, take the following passage accented, as nearly as I 
can guess, just as Schipper would have : 

Of alle wymmanne 

Wurst was Godhild );anne ; 

For Murri heo weop sore 

And for Horn ^ute more. 

He wenten ut of halle 

Fram hire maidenes alle ; 

Under a roche of stone, 

p$r heo liuede alone. 

per heo seruede gode 

A^enes ]>e paynes forbode : 

per heo seruede criste 

pat no payn hit ne wiste. M C 11. 67-78. 

The marking of one ictus with a grave accent, produces only the 
thinnest illusion of something different from a three-beat verse. 
As well might we say that the following verses from Surrey so 
marked are not in three-beat measure : 



THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN, 

"The fire it cannot freze : 
For it is not his kinde, 
Nor true love cannot I6se 
The Constance of the minde." 10 

And let it be acknowledged at once that in certain passages of 
King Horn, and particularly in selected lines, a three-beat scansion 
would go well enough. Morris n and Gummere 12 indeed, accept- 
ing Schipper' s contention as against the " Otfrid in England " 
theory, marked the type of the Horn verse outright thus — (x) x x 
x x x (x) ; for this was the way Schipper himself indicated his 
scansion of Horn in the Metrik, I, 1881 [p. 183f.]. 

But Schipper now perceives that King Horn must not be made 
an overt beat-verse: because, in attempting to apply the above 
formula to the whole poem or even to lengthy continuous passages, 
we come upon places far too frequent to be overlooked where the 
eifort to read three metrically equivalent accents into the line pro- 
duces an intolerable effect ; and, further, in many verses w^e should 
have to juxtapose two of the ictus (often putting both on 
one word as in wimmdnne above or Miirry 1. 4) in a way totally 
against the genius of beat-verse. 13 Thus has it come about that 
Morris and Gummere present a marking of the Horn line, taken 
from Schipper 7 s Altenglische Metrih, which the latter author him- 
self has since rejected. 

Schipper in his final discussion of the Horn sets up an artificial 
distinction u between " dreihebig," three-stress, and " dreitaktig," 
three-beat. The verse of King Horn, he says, is not in three- 

10 Quoted from Gummere, Poetics, p. 197. 

11 Specimens, I, Introd., p. xxxviii. 12 Poetics, p. 179. 

13 On his unsophisticated scansion of Horn with three downright acute accents 
Morris remarks : ' ' The general effect is good, but modern metre would not 
approve of the bringing of two accented syllables into close juxtaposition" — as in 
Bi >e se-side, And J>i fair-nesse, >at his blod hatte. 

14 1 say artificial, because it is a distinction assumed solely to support Schipper' s 
scansion of King Horn. He can point to no other ' ' dreihebig ' ' poem except the 
twelve lines of the Signs of Death (on which see Chap. Ill, below). No such grounds 
exist for a distinction between "dreihebig" and "dreitaktig" as for the valuable 
distinction between "vierhebig" and " viertaktig." 



SCHIPPER'S " DREIHEBIGKEIT " OF KING HORN. 9 

beat movement of course : it is a three-stress line. Consequently 
Schipper carefully avoids marking any verse of our poems thus — 
(x)xxxxx(x). That would make the line appear too "tak- 
tierend," too much like beat-verse (although, it is to be insisted, 
that is just what the Horn line ought to become, when we take to 
stressing unemphatic words to fill out the premised rhythmic 
formula of three ictus). The five typical verse forms of King 
Horn, as now made out by Schipper, are the following \_Grds. d. 
Eng. Metr., p. 71-2] : 

1. "Die vorwiegende Versform .... sind .... Verse von 
drei Hebungen mit klingendem Ausgang nach Art der folgenden : 

Horn J?u art wel kene 

Dieser Typus . . . kommt in circa 1300 Versen von den 1530 
Yersen der Dichtung vor." 

2. A "zweihebige Versform tritt noch vereinzelt zu Tage" 
as in : 

Hi wenden to wisse. 

But this type, we are told, appears in both lines of the couplet 
" nur einmal, namlich in dem Verse : 

Hi slo3en and fasten | ]>e ni^t and J?e listen." 

3. " Die dritte Versform, drei Hebungen mit stumpfem Vers- 
ausgang, begegnet ebenfalls seltener, z. B. : 

L6ue at hire he nam." 

4. " Die vierte haufiger vorkommende Versform zeigt vier 
Hebungen mit stumpfem Versausgange : 

Ofte hadde Horn beo wo 

Ac n£ure wtirs J?an him was )>6" 

5. "Die funfte Versform, vier Hebungen bei klingendem Aus- 
gange, kommt gleichfalls nicht selten vor, z. B. : 

To de];e he hem alle bro^te 

His fader de]> wel dere hi bd3te." 



10 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

§ 3. Disregarding varieties of a main type, we see that the 
scansion of King Horn, as Schipper teaches, reduces itself to three 
formulas : 

Type (1) (x) x x x x 

Type (2) (x) x x x x x (x) 

Type (3) (x) x x x x x x x (x). 

Of these three, Type (1) is sure. Type (3) may look like a logical 
development from Type (1) ; there are some lines requiring to be 
so marked, and such a formula will be posited for them in the new 
analysis of the Horn verse to be made in succeeding chapters. 
But a close examination of the examples Schipper scans thus on 
pp. 72-74 (except the one line above — His fader dej;, etc., where 
such an accentuation is inevitable) admits of no other interpreta- 
tion than that his " vierhebig " type is a mere concession to the 
adherents of the four-stress (to the half-line or short-line) theory 
of "Otfrid in England." 15 

The remaining formula above requires especial attention. Type 
(2), the prevailing "dreihebig" verse of King Horn, is in fact 
also a concession to the theory of " Otfrid in England," in that 
Schipper is stressing for his middle ictus all sorts of weak words 
and supposing the "fehlende Senkung," the suppressed thesis, 
which would differentiate in Schipper* s theory the Horn "drei- 
hebigkeit" from simple " dreitaktigkeit." Only in refusing to 
admit an accent on the final -e has he maintained his stand against 
" Otfrid in England " ; this he says himself [top of p. 73] : " Nur 
konnen wir naturlich .... den Nebenton auf den klingenden 
Endungen dreihebiger Verse, den iibrigens auch Luick hier nicht 
mehr mit solcher Entschiedenheit fordert wie dort \i. e. in Laya- 
mon] , fur das Metrum des King Horn ebenso wenig zugestehen." 

On the other hand in appearance this Type (2) is something 
more. The careful employment of a grave accent now instead of 
a third acute is an apparent gain over the marking of 1881 : 

15 For a graphic demonstration of Schipper 5 s compromise with "Otfrid in Eng- 
land ' ' one has only to put side by side his metrical accentuation of the Brut and 
Horn and Luick's accentuation of them as "nationale Reimverse" [Paul's 
Grdriss., II, 998 ff., especially from § 7 on]. 



PLAUSIBILITY OF SCHIPPER's THEORY. 11 

because it makes the Horn " dreihebigkeit " look like an actual 
transition stage between the old native half-line of two primary 
stresses with a frequent secondary stress (in types D and E) and 
a new three-beat verse formed on Romance models ; so that the 
Horn couplet would really appear to be an intermediate form 
between the native English alliterative long-line and an alexan- 
drine with leonine rime. Observe the couplets scanned on p. 73 
with Schipper's artful new marking beside his retention of the old 
letters, A, B, C, etc., for his Horn types. 

When we read a passage of the poem [s. above p. 7] accord- 
ing to Schipper's scansion, it felt like nothing more than a lame 
beat- verse ; but if King Horn does indeed exhibit a mid-form 
between two-stress and three-beat, Schipper's terminology and his 
Type (2) with its grave accent might be a welcome addition to 
English metrical theory : a valuable distinction would exist 
between the Horn three-stress verse and a thoroughgoing three- 
beat verse. 

Now the plausibility of such a contention, that the King Horn 
rhythm represents a transition stage between the native verse and 
the imported verse, depends upon the answers to be obtained to 
three questions. 

First : Does the advocate himself really believe in this " drei- 
hebig " verse as something not three-beat ? And what collateral 
evidence can he adduce from other poems in favor of his " drei- 
hebig " scansion ? 

Second : Does the Horn, when analyzed with one's vision 
wholly undisturbed by an Otfrid illusion, require one to read thus 
into every line a third stress, to be felt as part of the rhythmic type 
and yet to be always only a secondary stress ? 

Third: On the other hand, can any collateral evidence be 
arrayed against the acceptance of Schipper's proposed formula for 
the prevailing Horn rhythm ? 

The following four chapters will be devoted to answering these 
questions. 



12 THE VEESIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



CHAPTER III. 

Schipper's " Dreihebigkeit " is After all Nothing but 

Three-beat. § 1. 
His Alleged Corroborative Text Does not Support his 

Contention. § 2. 

§ 1. Taking up the first question toward a critical estimate of 
Schipper's position on the verse of King Horn, we ask : Is Schip- 
per himself firm and consistent in showing that the typical verse of 
King Horn is one of "drei Hebungen," and that this means some- 
thing distinct from three-beat verse ? 

On p. 71 Schipper begins persuasively. After Layamon the 
native " Langzeile freier Richtung " developed further : for the 
external verse ornament rime was systematically introduced, while 
alliteration was more and more discarded; but in its internal 
structure also the verse underwent development — " Die Senkungen 
[p. 71] zwischen den Hebungen treten regelmassiger ein, und die 
starker betonte, resp. betonten derselben werden za Hebungen oder 
nahern sich ihnen wenigstens erheblich an rhythmischer Bedeu- 
tung." Therefore in King Horn, the climax of the "freie 
Behandlung der alliterierenden Langzeile" [p. 75], the verse 
stands thus : " Die vorwiegende Versform .... sind .... Verse 
von drei Hebungen." The choice of terms here and more par- 
ticularly the difference between Schipper's accentuation of 1881 
and his present marking either mean that three-stress is not equal 
to three-beat, or else it all means nothing ; and the latter alterna- 
tive will leave Schipper with no ground for the term " dreihebig." 

If now we turn to p. 87 (last lines) of Schipper's book we find 
that there he comes as near as possible, without actually doing so, 
to calling the King Horn line a verse of three beats. In treating 
of certain more expanded verses of rimed poems in the Middle 
English development " strenger Richtung " of the native rhythm, 



IS NOTHING BUT THREE-BEAT. 13 

he says that here " die zweihebigen Verse ofters einen gestreckteren 
.... Bau haben, der es ermoglicht, manche derselben, in denen 
nebentonige Senkungen vorkommen, als dreitaktige Verse zu 
lesen (oder dreihebige nach Art derjenigeu im King Horn)." 
Here we have not quite caught Schipper making the verse of King 
Horn openly three-beat : he studiously clings to the term " dreihe- 
big " for the verse of the Horn itself. 

But on the very next page he at last entraps himself: for we 
are told out and out that certain other loose verses are " dreihebig, 
resp. dreitaktig." The sentence is [p. 89, § 51] : "In anderen 
Gedichten sind mit den vierhebigen Versen des Aufgesanges im 
Abgesange Verse verbunden, die zum Theil einen schwankenden, 
entweder dreihebigen (resp. dreitaktigen) oder zweihebigen Rhyth- 
mus haben." The second of the alternatives here suggested, 
" zweihebig," is very significant for the contention of the present 
study, that the prevailing line of King Horn is one of two stresses : 
but our immediate purpose is to direct attention to the first alter- 
native. In the illustrative stanza that Schipper here gives from 
the poem of Richard of Cornwall [Boddeker, p. 98 f.] the typical 
line of this " dreihebig, resp. dreitaktig n character is — 

Ant so he dude more. 

As this line is, both in itself and also as Schipper accents it, 
exactly similar to the "vorwiegende Versform" of King Horn, 
we may confidently remark that therefore the verse of King Horn, 
as treated by Schipper, becomes " dreihebig, respective dreitaktig," 
or in vulgar English a verse of three beats. It hence appears that 
Schipper himself has inadvertently confirmed what we felt from 
the very beginning : namely, that to read King Horn as he would 
have us do, makes it nothing but three-beat verse — just as Morris 
and Gummere treated it. 

Turning another page of Schipper' s manual, we find him treat- 
ing lines much like the Horn verse as two-stress or three-beat 
verse : the argument would of course work the other way, and 
make King Horn itself, if not two-stress, then simply three-beat. 
He has a short paragraph [p. 90] on the Satire on Ecclesiastical 



14 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Courts [Boddeker, p. 109 f ] . As examples of* the internal 
" Schweifreimverse " of this poem look at the following lines : 

ant rewen alle huere redes 6 

so grimly he on me gredes 9 

ant ley]? ys leg on lonke 21 

ant ]?onkfulliche hem ]?onke 30 

nys no wyt in is nolle 45 

swart ant al to swolle 48 

J?en so to fote hem falle 66 

henne in J;is worldes wynne 78 

These verses are rhythmically of the same character as Schipper' s 
" vorwiegende Versform " of King Horn : but now for the scan- 
sion of these he offers us the alternative of "zweihebig" or 
" dreitaktig " — not "dreihebig" be it observed. For the four 
cauda verses, however, of which the following is an example — 

former heo beodej? of boke 
to sugge ase y folht toke 
heo shulen in helle on a hoke 
honge ]?ere fore 

where is every instance the final line alone is regularly more con- 
cise than the above inner " Schweifreim " verses, Schipper with 
apparent inconsistency allows only a " zweihebig," that is, a free 
two-stress reading. Why could he not have been as liberal toward 
King Horn as he is with the shorter lines of this poem and with 
Richard of Cornwall, and have granted us in King Horn too at 
least the alternative of two-stress or three-beat scansion, though he 
himself may have preferred the latter ? Was it not that even with 
Schipper the unexorcised " Otfrid in England " would not down ? 
With the surrender of a distinction between " dreihebig " and 
" dreitaktig," Schipper can no longer consistently classify King 
Horn among the poetic forms descending directly from the Anglo- 
Saxon alliterative long-line. If his exposition of the Horn rhythm 
were correct, no matter what name he chose to give the verse, it 
would be logically misplaced in any other order of treatment than 



ALLEGED CORROBORATIVE TEXT. 15 

when classed among the beat-measures of the alexandrine type, 
with Robert Manning's rimed chronicle [cf. Grd. Metr., p. 199]. 
And in the end it would seem that Schipper himself has no whole- 
hearted belief in a u dreihebig " verse as a new and valuable dis- 
tinction in English metrical theory. 

§ 2. The one piece of collateral evidence that Schipper brings 
forward to reinforce his theory of a " dreihebig," or we may as 
well say (remember "respective") a three-beat rhythm in King 
Horn is the little twelve-line poem Signs of Death. After his 
statement as to how the native verse developed from Layamon's 
irregular movement to the " fortgeschrittene Taktgleichheit " of 
King Horn, he says [p. 71] that before we get to King Horn we 
find the same verse-form with rime " consequent durchgefuhrt " 
already in another poem. " In dieser Form liegt dies Metrum 
vor in einem kleinen, zwolf Verszeilen umfassenden, in der ersten 
Halfte des 13. Jahrhunderts entstandenen Gedichte, betitelt Signs 
of Death:' 

Now the logic of this little piece points so irresistibly to a 
simple two-stress rhythm, in spite of the absence of alliteration 
(except in the third couplet) and the presence of full end-rime, 
that we may at once scan it. Proof cannot be needed for what 
must appear self-evident to every one acquainted with the later 
Middle English development of the Anglo-Saxon free-rhythm. 

[H]wenne |?in heou bloke)?. 

And |?i streng]?e woke]?. 

And j?i neose colde)?. 

And J?i tunge volde]?. 

And ]?e byleuej? J?i brej?. 

And Jn lif )?e at-ge)?. 

[M] e nymej? J?e nu}?e wrecche. 

On flore me J>e strecche]?. 

And ley)? J?e on bere. 16 

And bi-preone}> J?e on here. 
And do}? J?e ine jmtte • wurnies ivere. 16 
peonne bij? hit sone of ]?e • al so ]>u neuer nere. 
Morris, Old Eng. Misc., E. E T. S. 49, p. 101. 

16 This accent is in the MS. 



16 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Schipper has, we think, in this little poem no corroborating 
evidence whatever for his three-beat scansion of King Horn. 
Rather should we hold this piece to be a link in our own argu- 
ment for a free two-stress reading of the Horn : for in this earlier 
poem we find support for our thesis that the native free-rhythm 
could and often did maintain itself in union with rime without 
the upholding prop of systematic alliteration. 



FIND IN HORN A TWO-STRESS RHYTHM. 17 



CHAPTER IV. 

* 

Why Not Find in the Horn Short Line a Two-stress 
Rhythm? § 1. 

How a Free Two-stress Reading of the Poem will 
Afford a Unifying Rhythm. § 2. 

Further Analysis of Horn Lines and Couplets on a 
Two-stress Basis with Wholly Satisfying Re- 
sults. § 3. 

King Horn does not Require, seems even to Forbid, a 
Three-beat Scansion; and Readily Submits to a 
Two-stress Reading. § 4. 

§ 1. Our second inquiry toward a critical estimate of Scup- 
per' s exposition of the Horn rhythm was this : Does the monu- 
ment itself, if read with one's mind wholly delivered from the 
spell of " Otfrid in England/' require Schipper's three-beat scan- 
sion (for we may as well now abandon the confessedly non-signifi- 
cant term, "dreihebig " or " three-stress ") ? 

Schipper would have us read into the verses of King Horn a 
third metrical ictus, to be felt as a structural part of the rhythm 
just as much as the two strong stresses always present. He would 
say that his prevailing Type (2) [see above, p. 10] has grown oat 
of Type (1) "einfach durch starkere Betonung einer Senkung" 
\_Metr. p. 71] : in short the Anglo-Saxon form — l (x) x (x) l x 
has in King Horn become £ x d x 0. x (again we may disregard 
Schipper's own compromise marking with a grave accent). 

Now why must we elevate an intermediate weak word or 
secondarily accented syllable of a polysyllabic word to a full 
metrical ictus in King Horn ? Beside his selected lines to illus- 
trate the various rhythmic movements of the Horn verse, Schip- 
per quotes [p. 72-3] exactly similar Anglo-Saxon lines, in which, 
2 



18 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

however, the introduction of a third ictus is not to be thought of: 17 
and this show of four-stress Anglo-Saxon lines so like the prevail- 
ing couplet of King Horn would seem to afford a strong pre- 
sumption against reading a third stress into the Horn line. 
Indeed Schipper himself is obliged to make some noteworthy 
allowances from a strict three-beat scansion of our poem. After 
his state ment, with examples, of the different verse forms in the 
Horn, and with parallel examples of similarly moving lines from 
Anglo-Saxon poems, Schipper says [p. 72] : " Alle diese Vers-' 
formen finden also ihre Analoga in der alliterierenden Langzeile, 
welche ja noch den Grundstock der ersten Vertreter [the Brut] 
dieser freien Richtung, die im King Horn ihren Ausgang durch 
Auflosung in ein kurzes Verspaar fand, bilden." And again he 
says [p. 73] : " Fur alle [the " dreihebig " types of the Horn~\ 
aber bilden wieder die zwei Haupthebungen in jedem Verse das 
zur Yerwendung aller dieser verschiedenen Versformen und 
Typen in ein und demselben Gedicht dienende Bindemittel." 
True : and therewith the three-beat scansion of King Horn is on 
the verge of being surrendered by Schipper himself. 

However, illogical as it would seem, when confronted by such 
a presumption from Anglo-Saxon parallels toward finding simply 
a two-stress rhythm in King Horn, Schipper (apparently in defer- 
ence to the advocates of " Otfrid in England ") forces the verse of 
the poem into a most unhappy three-beat shape, disguised under 
grave accents and " dreihebigkeit." 

Let us undertake an independent analysis of the verse of King 
Horn. And at the outset it may be granted that, as compared 
with Layamon's verse, the Morn does show in general greater 
regularity and smoothness, greater evenness in the syllabic length 
of its lines ; and in so far may be said to' display a " fortgeschrit- 
tene Taktgleichheit " [Metr., p. 73] . But, that the movement of 
King Horn consciously stops far short of an attempt at three-beat 
verse, many lines indisputably prove. 

That any English rimed verse which exhibits some regularity 
and smoothness, unless provided with systematic alliteration to 

17 See p. 2, n. 2 foregoing. 



FIND IN HORN A TWO-STRESS RHYTHM. 19 

make doubly evident the native free-rhythm (as is done in most 
of the fourteenth century rimed-alliterative poetry), is forthwith 
to be rated as beat-verse, or as "Otfrid verse " for Luick's fol- 
lowers, — this surely must appear an hypothesis, easily to be over- 
thrown by a study of the fourteenth and fifteenth century rimed- 
alliterative poems, where often the alliteration is most carelessly 
applied or altogether neglected. Yet this unsafe assumption seems 
to be the fundamental idea underlying all the work of the Ger- 
mans on Early English metrics. Since Sievers' exposition of the 
old Germanic alliterative verse has been so generally accepted, it 
seems to be a constant presumption in the minds of German 
metrists that, alike for Early English as for "Early German verse, 
all poetic forms externally marked with alliteration and lacking 
systematic rime are going to run in the Germanic five-type free- 
rhythm ; while, on the other hand, all poetic forms externally 
adorned with rime, whether showing much or little alliteration, 
will (unless the verse under examination is an undoubted Eomance 
beat-verse) be found to run in " Otfrid verse." Again we must 
note that Schipper is the conspicuous exception to this rule. 

This double preconception apparently so widely entertained 
has, in our opinion, been the great obstruction in the way of 
producing a satisfactory rhythmic analysis of the Brut-Horn 
group of poems. Whether such a two-fold presumption holds 
safely for Early German versification is a question not pertinent 
to the present study j but it certainly does not hold for Early 
English verse. It is to be one of the main purposes of this dis- 
sertation to clear away the misconception that the native 18 English 
free-rhythm must be accompanied by systematic alliteration ; and 
that, accordingly, when we meet an early verse like this of King 
Horn, with no systematic alliteration but with thorough end-rime, 
its rhythm must be something aside from the direct line of descent 
of the native rhythm, and hence some sort of beat- verse regular 
or irregular, or else the English representative of the German 

18 Since it is here assumed that Schipper has overthrown the " Otfrid in Eng- 
land ' ' hypothesis, there is left for us but one native verse ; there is, in our 
opinion, no " national rime-verse " in England. 




20 THE VEESIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

" reirnvers," which is itself accounted the Germanic beat-verse.™ 
Perhaps the secret of Schipper's final compromise to Luick and 
the " Otfrid in England " theory in his treatment of the Brut and 
King Horn is that he too was unable to rid himself of the idea 
that after all, unless the verse of a rimed English poem is by 
alliteration visibly shown to belong in the tradition of the national 
long-line, the presumption is that -it is some sort of beat-verse. 

Such a presumption of course holds for Modern English poetry. 
But in the face of that fine fourteenth century revival of the native 
four-stress verse (with the original half-line now also in detached 
use as a short-line for stanza refrains or for whole cauda stanzas) 
and its continued life even down to the present day [so well set 
forth by Schipper in his chapter on the national long-line "stren- 
ger Richtung"], the antecedent presumption for any doubtful 
English verse from Aelfric down through the thirteenth century 
ought to be the other way. And in support of the latter view, it 
should be noted that all the Early English poetry in Romance 
beat-verse shows a very regular alternation of arsis and thesis, and 
juxtaposing stresses is obviously viewed as a license not to be 
indulged in. 20 Hence the conclusion seems safe that, because 
English measures made on Romance models are from the earliest 
examples down always so undoubtedly marked as beat-verse, 
therefore for the period previous to the fourteenth century the 
antecedent probability is strong in favor of finding all poems of a 
doubtful rhythm to be in the native tradition of a free two-stress 
movement for the half-line or short-line, and a free four-stress 
movement for the long-line. The verse of King Horn, although 
composed in systematic rime and showing only capricious allitera- 
tion, is nevertheless a verse whose rhythm at first appears quite 
doubtful : our very doubt about it establishes a presumption that 
it is not a beat-verse even of the "dreihebig resp. dreitaktig" 
sort ; but that the Horn line will prove on correct analysis to be 
composed in a free two-stress rhythm, that it will turn out to be 
the Middle English short-line. 

19 The Germans make their "Otfrid verse " a " Gesangvers," a beat-verse. 
20 See C. L. Crow's dissertation, Zur Geschichte des kurtzen Beimpaars. 



TWO-STRESS READING AFFORDS A UNIFYING RHYTHM. 21 

§ 2. Perhaps the whole problem of the versification of King 
Horn is typified in its two opening couplets : 

Alle beon hi blfye 

J?at to mi song li)?e ! 

a song ihc schal 3011 singe 

of Murry ]?e kinge. 1/4. 

Now we must suppose that every piece of verse, in which any 
rhythmic parallelism at all is discoverable, has been composed in 
some one unifying verse-form ; and in order to read the above 
lines with any satisfaction we must find a general type of verse, 
under which all four of them may be held together, or else we 
should abandon once for all the attempt to show any law in the 
verse of King Horn. Hence we inquire, by what comprehensive 
verse-form may these four lines be rendered rhythmically parallels 
of one other ? 

By Schipper' s teaching we must read thus : 

1 Alle beon hi blfye 

2 J?at to mi song li]?e 

3 a song ihc schal 30U singe 

4 of Murry J?e kinge. 

[Again we throw out of the way Schipper' s mere subterfuge of 
grave accents.] 

Now for lines 1 and 3 this scansion would pass ; but then we 
must straightway assume that we have here a decided three-beat 
verse. How well, next, does a three-beat scansion suit lines 2 
and 4? Here we meet the difficulty : for juxtaposed stressing is 
obnoxious even to the earliest English beat-verse. Line 4 is par- 
ticularly intolerable for a three-beat verse ; but Schipper, in order 
to get in a third ictus, resorts [p. 73] to the device, which need 
beguile nobody, of calling it a "dreihebig" A with secondary 
accent — of Murry J?e kinge. Line 2 Schipper calls a C type with 
secondary stress, marking it — x x x x x x ; and yet on p. 101 he 
speaks of type C, owing to its juxtaposed stresses, as " der dem 
taktierenden Rhythrnus wider strebende Typus C." Thus in the 



22 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

very first lines of the poem can be seen the real reason why 
Schipper strove to avoid acknowledging what he had in fact done : 
he is seeking (since the Metrik of 1881) an escape from treating 
King Horn as a downright three-beat verse ; and with such care 
does he describe and accent selected lines as " three-stress " verses, 
that not until after the lapse of eighteen pages can we entrap him 
into admitting that "dreihebig," as applied to the prevailing verse 
of King Horn, means nothing but three-beat. It is evident, there- 
fore, that in his change of position from his stand of 1 881 Schipper 
has contrived to save only appearances. 21 

If the three-beat scansion, suggested as possible by 11. 1 and 3 
above, is prohibited by 11. 2 and 4, let us start out from the latter 
to find a unifying form for all four. Line 4 is obviously best 
read as : 

of Murry J?e kinge 

like an Anglo-Saxon type A with one-syllable anacrusis. It is 
naturally a verse of simply two stresses. Similarly for 1. 2 the 
natural reading is : 

hat to mi song lyhe 

as a simple two-stress verse of the native C type ; and if anyone 
hesitates over the three-syllable initial thesis, let him observe the 
far heavier theses not only in Middle English free-rhythm verse 
but even in Anglo-Saxon, for example : 

hara J»e he him mid hsefde, Beow. 1625 b. 22 

Lines 2 and 4 plainly suggest as the rhythm for all four lines 
a free, two-stress movement. Can we read 11. 1 and 3 in the 
same two-stress rhythm ? Certainly, thus : 

Alle b6on hi blyj?e 

a song ihc schal ^ou singe 

21 But Schipper is now, in our opinion, nearer the truth than he was in 1881 : 
his unsuccessful effort to make King Horn something else than three-beat verse 
was in its apparent result a move in the right direction — although in its impulse 
it can hardly be considered anything else than a concession to Luick and "Otfrid 
in England." 

22 Bright, Anglo-Saxon Reader, p. 233. 



TWO-STKESS READING AFFORDS A UNIFYING RHYTHM. 



23 



and any page of late Anglo-Saxon verse, or of fourteenth century 
verse in the native free-rhythm, will show lines, having words like 
alle and schal, and many logically heavier ones, easily glided over 
in the thesis of the verse. Hence we can read with perfect satis- 
faction the four lines together as free two-stress verse : 

Alle beon hi blfpe 

J>at to mi song ly]?e 

a song ihc schal ^ou singe 

of Murry ]?e kinge 1/4. 

While the attempted three-beat reading of the opening of King 
Horn produced an irreconcilable discord, a two-stress reading is 
entirely rhythmical according to the native English versification : 
we at once acquire a scansion satisfactory and unifying without 
having to admit any questionable licenses against our normal 
verse-form or against normal word accent and sentence stress. 

Other undoubted C type verses in our text, arguing for a two- 
stress reading of the Horn line, are : 



bi ]?e se side 
bi J>e s6 brinke 
into a galele 
and J?i fairnesse 



35 
143 

189 23 
217, 



r 



and also 137, 177, 207, 233, 565, 566, 569, 624, 636 (wow 
emphatic), 712, 741, 834, 845, 872, 902, 978, 992, 1003, 1022, 
1026, 1045, 1115, 1117, 1158, 1192, 1218, 1254, 1520, 1538. 
Moreover, one cannot but observe in how many cases the accom- 
panying line of the couplet can rationally be given but two stresses. 
For example : 

with 177 we find — and of wit J?e beste 178 

and on 189 follows — wij? J>e se to plele 190 

further with 624 goes 623 ; with 845, 846 ; with 978, 977. 

But besides the Horn verses plainly of the native C type there 
are other lines in the poem so short that they contain only two 



On this accentuation cf. Luick, Angl. XII, 448. 



24 THE VERSIFICATION OP KING HORN. 

words or only two capable of bearing logical stress ; and for all 
lines of this sort a third ictus cannot be thought of, unless we 
were dealing with a beat- verse of the most pronounced character — 
a supposition that Schipper himself would not entertain. For 
example : 

schtipes fiftene 39 

wij? sarazins kene 40 

a payn hit ofherde 43 

schtip bi ]?e node 141 

alle J?r6ttene 167 

bi w6stene londe 172 

and see also 181, 273, 293, 341, 356, 358, 436, 438, 478, 853, 
868, 1209, 1238, 1263, 1277, 1340, 1343, 1350, 1399/1400, 
1401, 1403, 1470. Schipper himself provides for some of these 
(as 1399/1400) with his "zweihebig" type. Again we observe 
that also the accompanying line of the couplet is often to be read 
naturally only as a two-stress verse. 

Into the same category we should throw the large number of 
lines where a third ictus is to be obtained only by stressing an 
initial conjunction or preposition. For example : 

and togadere smite 54 

into schupes borde 115 

at J>e f6rste worde 116 

and see also 178, 194, 310, 391, 505, 550, 552, 568, 625, 658, 
1438, 1519, 1532, 1544. And once more notice how often the 
accompanying line of the couplet has but two logically stressible 
words. 

In many lines of Wissmann's text a study of the variants gives 
the interesting result that only a two-stress reading will hold 
together the three mss. in the same scansion ; and besides it is the 
two logically stressed words that remain while the expletives vary 
or drop away. For example at 1. 1135, 

C has Horn sat upon J?e grunde 

and O has And horn set on ]?e grunde 

while H has Horn set at grounde. 



FURTHER ANALYSIS ON A TWO-STRESS BASIS. 25 

Or again at 1. 1148, 

H has Beggare so kene 

C expands Beggere J;at were so k6ne 

and O goes further Beggere so b6ld and kene [for this accentu- 
ation cf. pp. 42-44] . 

Further examples of these variant readings pointing to a two- 
stress scansion of our poem will be found at 11. 1058, 1138, 1199, 
1205, 1209, 1233, 1340, 1343, 1349, 1350, 1406. Indeed we 
may suppose that in the original King Horn very many of the 
lines were more concise than those of the existing manuscripts, 
that the poet's own draft would run more evenly into the Anglo- 
Saxon five-type rhythm than do the extant verses that came from 
the later copyists. 

§ 3. Let it not be thought, however, that only the C type lines 
and the very concise ones make against a three-beat reading of King 
Horn and for a two-stress rhythm. We shall next examine some 
quite different verses of the poem. To begin with, take this 
couplet marked first as if a three-beat verse, a divided alexandrine : 

Murri ]?e gode king 

Rod on his pleing 33/4. 

This scansion might be accepted if we saw that our whole poem 
were plainly in a three-beat verse : but that the prevailing line of 
King Horn can give no satisfaction as an outright three-beat 
verse, Schipper himself now clearly believes, since he keeps the 
poem in the native tradition, and tries to make out his own scan- 
sion of it to be something different from " dreitaktig." We may 
therefore reject the above scansion. 

To ascertain the true rhythm in such lines let us resort to the 
method of analyzing them backward from the rimed end of the 
verse. For the rime stress of the second line above one unhesi- 
tatingly marks — pleing : while the riming syllable requires some 
stress, it is satisfied with a secondary one ; and so Schipper marks 
[p. 74] the exactly similar word, huntinge 662. Obviously there 
is now only one other word left in this line capable of bearing a 



26 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

stress, that is — R6d : so that we have a verse that naturally 
demands but two stresses — Rod on his plemg. 

As to the first line above we now note that to read — 

Murri J?e gode king 
along with — Rod on his plemg 

would throw the couplet into discord. Beginning again, however, 
with the rimed end of the verse, we stress — gode king, as the 
accentuation most true to the native English tradition, and in the 
present instance admirably in harmony with pUlng. With the 
end of our line so scanned there is once more but one word left 
capable of being stressed, that is — Murri. 

Putting this couplet together again we have it thus : 

Mtirri J?e gode king 

R6d on his plying 33/4. 

The two lines are unified in the native two-stress rhythm : the 
first is the Middle English form of Sievers' D 4 (or more simply 
Bright' s D 2 — see his AS. Reader, p. 235), and the second repre- 
sents Sievers' A2b 24 in Middle English expanded style. 

Schipper has himself scanned for us in the same way [p. 69] 
an exactly similar couplet from the Proverbs of Alfred : 

J?e eorl and )?e e^eling 

ibiirej? under godne king Prov. Al. iv. 74/5. 

[The intermediate secondary stresses on and and under, which 
vitiate Schipper ? s scansion, have been removed.] He remarks 
that such stressing of godne Icing is here expressly indicated by 
an accent : thus, gddne, in the Jesus Coll. MS. [In Morris, Specs. 
I, p. 148, the accent may be seen] . And if the alliteration of e in 
the Proverbs seems to make that couplet dissimilar to the Horn 
couplet, where there is no alliteration, we have only to turn back 
in the Metrik to p. 57 to fiud Schipper scanning thus another 
couplet very like our Horn one : 

2i Altgerm. Metrik., 1893, p. 33-4. 



FURTHER ANALYSIS ON A TWO-STRESS BASIS. 27 

Wo is him J?at tivel wif 

bryngej? to his cotlyf Prov. Al. xv. 257/8. 

Our couplet from King Horn may just as reasonably be read in 
the native two-stress movement as these couplets from the Proverbs. 
It is to be kept in mind that the present study of King Horn has 
for an especial object to show the existence of the old free-rhythm 
with its logical stress not systematically reinforced by alliteration. 
By the principle of analysis just illustrated an undoubted two- 
stress rhythm is revealed in many couplets of King Horn. Some 
typical couplets may be grouped under five heads. 

I. Easy couplets very like the one already analyzed. For 
example : 

we b6oJ? of Sudden e 

icume of gode k&nne 179/0. 

and see further 199/0, 347/8, 455/6, 459/0, 503/4, 579/0, 645/6, 
675/6, 743/4, 783/4, 803/4, 945/6. 

II. More expanded couplets of the same movement as the pre- 
ceding. For example : 

tomore^e be J?e fi} tinge 

whan ]>e li^t of claye springe 8 3 9/0. 25 

]?at 6n him het A]mlf child 
and ]?at 6];er Fikenhild 27/8. 

[cf. the couplet 783/4 under I.] 
hi metten wij? Ailmar King 
Crist him ^eue his blessing 159/0. 

and see further 223/4, 251/2, 467/8, 519/0, 533/4, 809/0, 869/0, 
889/0, 1313/4, 1457/8, 1467/8, 1539/0. 

III. Frequently, as one would expect, the secondary stress 
will rime with a full stress. Notice first the following couplet 
from a later poem with Schipper's accentuation : 

25 Schipper so scans the similar phrase — 

J>e day gan springe \_Metr. , p. 74. ] 



28 THE VEESIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Ouer heor h6des gon hyng 
J?e wince and the weclerlyng Sus. 101/2. 

[Metr., p. 93 ; cf. Luick, Angl. xn. 450, 

and Grdrs. II. 1017.] 

A precisely similar movement is to be found in the following 
couplets of King Horn : 

King of W6sternesse 

Crist him ^eue blisse 161/2. 

f6rj? he clepede A]?elbrus 

J?at was stiward of his htis 229/0. 

to mi lord J?e king 

J?at he me ^iue dubbing 453/4. 

and see further 661/2, 949/0, 1009/10, 1203/4. 1389/90, 1491/2, 
1537/8, 1541/2. In couplets under this head a two-stress reading 
of the more expanded line is often placed the further beyond doubt 
by the evidently simple two-stress character of the more concise 
line : for example, notice 1. 453 above. 

IV. The liberty of employing secondary stress for the rime is 
easily extended further to cases like the following; and again in 
nearly every couplet the one line or the other is so plainly a two- 
stress verse that only the native free-rhythm will bring both lines 
under one system of versification : 

horn ha)? lude sune 

bi dales and bi dune 213/4. 

J?at he come hire to 

and also scholde H6rn do 271/2. 

if J?u eure isije 

Horn under wude li$e 1179/80. 

of alle winimanne 

werst was Godhild J?anne 69/0. 

Horn no wtinder made 

of Fikeles falshade 1271/2. 

and of gr6te streng}>e 

and fair o bodie lengj?e 923/4. 



HORN DOES NOT REQUIRE A THREE-BEAT SCANSION. 29 

Aj>ulf fel akne J?ar 

bifore be king Aylmar 521/2. 

he so^te his moder halle 

in a roche walle 1407/8. 

and see further 247/8, 621/2, 677/8 (net ihc caste), 695/6 (teres 
stille). All cases of word subordination here and under the fol- 
lowing head are in no way contrary to the rules of Germanic sen- 
tence stress. 26 

V. Finally, a few illustrations may be given of the couplets 
employing secondary stresses within the line ; and again it is only 
a free two-stress rhythm that will harmonize the paired verses : 

after kni^tes ll^te 

irisse men to fijte 1027/8. 

and his gode kni^tes two 

al to fewe were }>6 51/2. 

hi sh^en and todro^e 

crlstenemen ino^e 185/6. 

Kymenhild on flore stod 

Homes cume hire Jm^te god 545/6. 

to-day haj? wedded Flkenhild 

hi swete lSmman Eymenhild 1473/4. 27 

§ 4. We pause here in our process of finding a two-stress 
rhythm in King Horn because the further course of our argument 
may be better set forth in a separate chapter on the collateral 
evidence for our thesis. But already some safe conclusions may 
be drawn, showing that our presumption as to the rhythm of this 
thirteenth century romance is being supported by ascertained fact. 

1. In all the lines above, where a three-beat scansion was pos- 
sible, the logic of the line nowhere demanded three full stresses ; 
and our supposition of no third stress, or of merely a secondary 

26 See references in foot-note to § 4, next page. 

17 All the longer lines in the foregoing five sets of examples will be paralleled in 
the following chapter by verses from other poems that are acknowledged to be in 
free-rhythm. 



30 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

stress beside the two primary ones, is securely based on the laws 
of the Early English sentence. 28 

2. Though often one line under different circumstances might 
invite a three-beat scansion, yet here the accompanying line of the 
couplet generally prohibited the introduction of a third ictus. 

3. Therefore only by a free two-stress rhythm can all the 
above lines be brought satisfactorily under one unifying verse- 
form, which is the urgent desideratum for this poem. 

When thus in King Horn the demand for a unifying rhythm 
and the consent of the logic of the line go together against a 
three-beat scansion, our obvious course to get a satisfactory read- 
ing of the poem is to observe the two primary, logical stresses in 
each line ; and then, for the great majority of the verses, we may 
justifiably regard the light words or syllables as forming merely 
theses, or else for a minor number of verses we should elevate a 
third word or syllable of more than thesis weight only to the 
intermediate rank it deserves, the grade of a secondary stress. In 
doing this we are restoring our poem to a legitimate place in the 
line of native five-type rhythm, instead of leaving it under the 
hybrid character attributed to it by Schipper. 

To our second inquiry into the plausibility of Schipper' s treat- 
ment of the Horn verse, the answer seems to be forthcoming that 
the document itself does not require a three-beat rhythm, and to a 
large extent (much more than is indicated by Schipper' s assertion 
about his two-stress type appearing only " vereinzelt ") it would 
appear that it does not even allow such a reading. 



28 See e. g. Streitberg, Urgerm. Gram., pp. 163-6; Sievers, Altgerm. Metr., pp. 
41-6; Sweet, New Brig. Gram., I, 243-5; Luick, AngL, XI, 396 f. 



HISTOKIC PRESUMPTION FAVORS TWO-STRESS RHYTHM. 31 



CHAPTER V. 

Historic Presumption Favors Finding in the Horn Short 
Line a Two-stress Rhythm. § 1. 

Incomplete Alliteration in King Horn does not Dis- 
prove its Claim of Being in Stress- verse. § 2. 

The Alliteration in the Horn Points to a Two-stress 
Reading of its Lines. § 3. 

Comparison of the Horn Couplet with Middle English 
Verse Clearly in the National Four-stress 
Free-rhythm Establishes their Metrical Like- 
ness. § 4. 

§ 1. Our third question on Schipper's theory of the Horn verse 
was : What collateral evidence can be produced against his scan- 
sion of the prevailing line of King Horn f Pursuing this question 
through the present chapter and the one following, we shall 
present many parallels from poems admittedly in the native free- 
rhythm to show how naturally even the various heavier lines in 
the Horn will scan as the regular Middle English expanded forms 
of the Anglo-Saxon two-stress half-line. But first, let us develop 
the argument from historic presumption, on which something was 
said in the preceding chapter. It was there asserted that in all 
Early Middle English verse, not obviously in beat-measure, the 
presumption ought to be in favor of finding the free, native 
rhythm. On the historic development of Middle English versi- 
fication, two quotations may be offered, the one from the acknowl- 
edged authority on Anglo-Saxon verse, and the other from that 
scholar who so clearly set forth the rhythm of the large body of 
alliterative poetry after King Horn. 

Of the last pieces of Anglo-Saxon poetry Sievers wrote : 
a Es bedarf nur einer fluchtigen durchsicht, urn zu erkennen, 
dass auch die ubrigen angelsachsischen dichtungen, mit ausnahme 




32 THE VERSIFICATON OF KING HORN. 

etwa des gedichtes auf den tod Aelfreds und der poetischen 
homilieii Aelfrics, das fiinftypensystem des Beowulf einhalten. 
Selbst so spate producte wie die Psalmenubersetzung, das Meno- 
logiuni, die pseudo-alfredischen Metra, denen sonst der sinn fur 
die poetische form, namentlich fur die richtige setzung der allitera- 
tion, bereits in hohem masse abgeht, sind in dieser beziehung 
noch durchaus correct. Im einzelnen werden sich freilich viele 
verschiedenheiten in der technik nachweisen lassen, indem der 
eine verfasser diesen oder jenen typus mehr bevorzugt als das 
andere, oder gewisse licenzen sich haufiger oder seltener erlaubt 
(auf die auftaktsetzung und die anwendung von nebenaccenten in 
den senkungen ist dabei besonders das augenmerk zu richten)." 
Paul and Braune's Beitrage, X, 45 1. 29 

And Luick, after supposing different sorts of beat-verse for the 
short lines of Sir Degrevant [cf. Chap. VI, § 6], and concluding 
that only with the native two-stress rhythm will those lines be 
satisfied, writes thus : 

" Die h alb verse der stabreimzeile, die wir fruher nur in an- 
schluss an langzeilen fanden, treten also hier selbstandig auf. 
Dass der stabreim schon recht vernachlassigt und verwildert ist, 
beweist nichts gegen diese auffassung. Auch im Altenglischen 
erhielt sich die rhythmik des verses lauger in urspriinglicher 
reinheit als die setzung der stabe ; und da der rhythmus das wesen 
der dichterischen form ausmacht, ist dies auch in der natur der 
sache begmndet." Anglia, XII, 441. 

Here is the state of English native verse preceding and succeed- 
ing King Horn, On the one hand the national rhythm tenaciously 
clings to life, although the old rules are relaxed as to conciseness 
of form and use of alliteration. On the other hand, late as it is, 
the same native rhythm still has full sway, although the line 
has grown yet more expanded and alliteration is more and more 
loosely applied ; m and now rime has been added as a systematic 

29 See also Schipper's treatment of the " Ubergangsf ormen " [G. d. E. M. pp. 
54-57]. 

^Except in the Destruction of Troy, whose author was evidently making an 
extraordinary effort to reproduce Anglo-Saxon rhythm. [See Luick, Anglia, 
XI, 393]. 



HISTOEIC PRESUMPTION FAVORS TWO-STRESS RHYTHM. 33 

adornment without any disturbance of the free two-stress move- 
ment in the short-line or four-stress movement in the long-line. 
Surely, then, for the intermediate period, in approaching any poem, 
not self-evidently in beat-verse, it lies nearest at hand for us to 
try first of all to find there the native free-rhythm, even though 
the document should be thoroughly rimed, and should show only 
capricious alliteration. 

During that Early Middle English time two rival rhythms were 
in vogue. According to the native prosody two half-lines in 
free-rhythm were united by alliteration to form the alliterative 
long-line : according to the imported prosody two beat-verses 
were united by rime to form a couplet. Now it is not at all a 
wild flight of fancy to suppose that a quick-witted minstrel, 
wishing to produce a spirited lay of King Horn, preferred to 
retain his strong, native verse-swing for its familiarity and free- 
dom ; but, seeing that alliteration was old-fashioned and would 
involve the use of many trite formulas, he followed the lead of 
most of his rivals in adopting systematic end-rime for his principal 
means of linking half-lines and for his regular verse ornament, 
so as to produce a short couplet ; and only in an irregular fashion 
did he employ also alliteration. And although his poem took the 
form of a riming couplet, he had no fear that its true rhythm 
would be missed ; because attention to the logical emphasis of the 
line would make the two-stress swing of it unmistakable. When 
we to-day can readily see how in the much later poems in the 
native rhythm (belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and even 
sixteenth centuries) the rime exercises no modifying influence on 
the internal structure of the line [" der Endreim iibt also keinen 
entscheidenden Einfluss auf den Rhythmus," Schipper, G. d. E. 
Metr.y p. 93 ; Luick, AngL, XII, 451, and in Paul's Grdriss. II, 
1016, § 46] all the more readily could a thirteenth century writer 
see how to fit his vigorous native poetic forms into rime without 
disturbing their shape. 

§ 2. If King Horn is composed in the native free-rhythm, it 
may seem surprising that so early a writer has broken so far away 
from thorough-going alliteration. Upon this feature of our poem 
let us ask two questions. First, is there any gradation in the use 



34 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

of alliteration by the later poetry in the national line, according 
as it approaches nearer and ,. nearer to the form of the continuous 
short couplet of King Horn f Second, is there not a considerable 
amount of alliteration in King Horn itself, and does that allitera- 
tion favor a two-stress scansion of the line ? 

To the first question the reply comes that there is some grada- 
tion. Luick' s results show that the later unrimed alliterative verse 
(from the exactness of the Destruction of Troy to the indifference 
of Piers Plowman) observes more faithfully the old rule for 
alliterating than does the rimed alliterative verse ; and, further, 
that in the rimed alliterative verse the long-line preserves allitera- 
tion more faithfully while kept intact, than when resolved into 
two short-lines. Thus in the thirteen-line epic stanzas the opening 
long-lines alliterate more correctly than the short-lines of the 
cauda : for example, in Schipper' s Grd. d. MetriJc [p. 94] there 
are two illustrative caudae with no alliteration [the concluding 
line (omitted by Shipper) in Sus. has alliteration, but that in 
Rauf Coil, has not] . 

When the last step was taken and the cauda itself, doubled 
once or twice, was used as a stanza 31 — and thus the parent long- 
line was wholly discarded to the advantage of its off-spring short- 
lines, — alliteration is preserved least faithfully of all : study, for 
example, the stanza from the Disticha Caionis given by Schipper 
[p. 97-8]. Similarly in the early drama, when free-rhythm is 
used with rime, there again appears a wholly capricious use of 
alliteration : in some lines it is profusely applied, in others it is 
almost abandoned. The Towneley Plays, for example (especially 
in the plays of Noah, the Shepherds, Herod, and the Buffeting), 
have the old free-rhythm rimed but alliterating most irregularly. 
And Schipper [p. 106] shows us an eight-line stanza from Bales' 
Thre Lawes with no alliteration at all. As this illustration is 
very late, however, let us return to the earlier Sir Degrevant, Sir 
Perceval, Rouland and Vernagu, and The Feest, 32 where we find 
many examples of the long or shorter cauda -stanza with little 

31 See Schipper, O. d. E. M., p. 97, § 57 ; Luick, Anglia, XII, p. 440. 

32 Luick, Anglia, XII, 440 ff. 



INCOMPLETE ALLITERATION DOES NOT DISPROVE. 35 

alliteration, although the rhythm is clearly the native two-stress 
movement. Luick gives 33 the second stanza of Sir Dcgreuant, 
in which but seven lines out of the sixteen are provided with 
alliteration. 

For another example, here is the fourth stanza of Rouland and 
Vernagu, marked as we should scan it : 

1 Alle J>at 16ued in godes lawe 34 

He 16te hem boJ>e hong and drawe. 35 
3 J?o }>at he mi^t of take ; 

and J?e patriark of Jerusalem 

Out of lond he dede him flem 
6 Al for godes sake. 

pe patriarke was ful wiis 

& to J?6mperour he went y-wis 
9 His mone for to make 

Hou J;e king ebrahim 

Out of lond Exiled him 
12 Wi> michel wer & wrake. 29 f. 

Of the twelve lines only 11. 1, 2, 9, and 12 show alliteration. 
Especially, however, in Sir Perceval is found the short-line in 
decided two-stress rhythm but without thorough alliteration. 
Look at stanza lxxxv : 

Now kny-llyne they the comone belle. 
Word come to Percevelle, 
And he wold there no 16ngere duSlle, 
But lepe fro the d6se ; 
Siche wilde gerys hade he mo, 
Sayd, " Kinsmene, now I go, 
For all 3 one salle I slo 

33 Ibid., p. 440. 

34 On alliteration of a secondarily stressed word, see Chap. VII, § 4. 

35 For this accentuation of paired coordinates see below, pp. 42-44. 



36 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Longe are I sese ! " 
Scho kiste liym withowttene lett, 
The lielnie one his hede scho sett ; 
To the stabille fulle sone he gett, 

There his stede was. 
There were none with hym to fare ; 
For no mane thenne wolde he spare 
Bydis furthe 36 withowttene mare 

Tille he come to the pr6se. 1349 f. 

Out of these sixteen lines only six show alliteration. Had the 
poet of Sir Perceval discarded the stanza, and put together his 
longer lines into a continuous epic form, then metrically that 
romance would have been much like King Horn. 

The conclusion, therefore, is that the Horn line itself is not 
necessarily something else than a two-stress verse, merely because 
we do not find here systematic alliteration beside the end-rime. 
Wissmann indeed supposes an earlier recension of the poem in 
more thoroughly alliterative form — " dass ihm hochstwahrschein- 
lich allitterirende Lieder gleichen Imhalts vorausgegangen " [King 
Horn Untersuch., p. 58] . 37 

§ 3. When, in the next place, we take up the text of King 
Horn to answer the second question proposed above, we do find a 
great deal of alliteration in our poem ; and although the logically 
dominant words in a couplet but seldom alliterate according to 
Anglo-Saxon rules, nevertheless frequent alliteration is applied to 
them in a way not without significance. Examples of alliterating 
lines and couplets will show at once that the alliteration in the 
Horn points to a two-stress reading of its lines. 

First : Alliteration marks the only two logically stressible words 
in the line. 



36 Luick and Schipper would scan this — rydis furthe. 

37 The foregoing argument from lax use of alliteration after rime was added, is 
in no way invalidated by the later (especially Scottish) fashion of heaping up 
alliteration : for that exaggeration is itself a proof of the complete loss of the old 
rule for alliterating. 



THE ALLITERATION IN HORN SHOWS TWO-STRESS. 37 

hi wenden to wlsse 123 

a swiche fair ferrade 170 

ure honde bihinde 196 

Horn ihc am ihote 205 

to btire for to Ibrmge 284 

in herte Jm hem holde 382 

and sore gan to sike 442 

bifore me to fi^te 508 

J?e kni^t hire gan k€sse 599 

on a god galeie 1032 

Jm wendest J;at ihc wro^te 1297 

J>e castel hi ne knewe 1465 

See further 11. 6, 11, 35 (137), 130, 158 (214), 216, 269, 275, 
292, 589, 599, 612, 614, 623, 639, 645, 724, 856, 865, 1112, 
1156, 1233, 1270, 1424, and others throughout the poem. Even 
if it be said that some of these examples are traditional alliterative 
formulae, none the less do they argue for a two-stress reading of 
the lines. 

Second : In the couplet alliteration links two logically stressible 
words, and there remain but two other words worthy of stress. 

hi smlten under schelde 

J?at sume hit yfelde 55/6 

3ef hit so bifalle 

^e scholde slen us alle 101/2 

J?e king cam into halle 

among his kni3tes alle 227/8 

after Horn he ernde 

him Jju^te his herte bernde 1255/6 

ihc was cristene a while 

\o come to J?is ile 1341/2 

Fikenhildes crune 

];er he f elde adun e 1511/2 



38 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

These examples illustrate that peculiarly artistic stroke of the poet 
[to be set forth more fully in Chap. VII] in alliterating the 
two stresses (1 and 3) which do not rime. In other couplets it is 
one of the riming words that alliterates with a non-riming 
word ; and again there remain but two other words of stressible 
significance. 

J?e king hadde al to f6we 

a^en so fele schrewe 57/8 

bifore me to k6rue 

and of J?e ctippe serue 237/8 

wij? J?ine maidenes sixe 

J?at J?e sittej? nixte 397/8 

m6rie was J?e feste 

al of faire g6stes 537/8 

These are cases where stresses 2 and 3 alliterate. Less often is to 
be found alliteration of stresses 1 and 4, a linking not permitted 
in strict Anglo-Saxon verse. 

if Jm 16ke J?eran 

and J?6nke upon j?i 16mman 591/2 

]?at his ribbes him tobrake 

and su}?J?e gan to halle rake 1099/0 

Ajmlf wij? him his broker 

n6lde he non 6j?er 1315/6 

Third : Alliteration occurs in a way to indicate the presence of 
the old Germanic order of sentence stress. Four traditional cases 
of word subordination may be illustrated. 

(a) Noun with noun : 

he" was of Homes kenne 889 

H6rnes fader so hendy 1360 

Godhild quSn }>e gode 148 38 

an6n upon AJmlf child 299 

38 Compare with— The mighty Massidon kyng. Destr. Troy, 313. 



THE ALLITERATION IN HORN SHOWS TWO-STRESS. 39 



(b) Noun with adjective : 

and on lii^e rode anhonge 334 

life a litel frdje 342 s 

mi longe sore3e lfye 422 
J?i sore^e schal 6nde 

er s6ue ^eres 6nde 935/6 



39 



(c) Adverb with adjective (participle) or verb : 

hit wur]> him wel i3olde 476 
wel feor icume bi este 

to fissen at J?i f6ste 1155/6 

and }ms hire bi^o^te J>o 268 

(d) Prepositional adverb : 

J>at J?u eure of wiste 240 
he tok Ajmlf bi honde 

and up he 3ede to londe 1323/4 

to f^te wij? upon ]>e feld 530 

Fourth : Finally, a group may be made of lines in which 
alliteration emphasizes the two stresses where a two-stress move- 
ment of the verse would not otherwise be quite obvious. There 
is present a third word that might attract attention but for the 
alliteration of the two more important words. 

seie me what 3c seche 173 

wel Jni sitte and softe 395 

and do 16mman ]>i lore 458 

]?e and alle ]?ine 652 

and wurj? wel s6ne is6ne 704 

and togadere go wulle 870 

of alle J?e kinges kni3tes 909 

ihc habbe walke wide 977 

today ihc schal )?er drinke 1079 

39 Here litel has rhetorical stress. 



40 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

J?e Iboye hit scholde albegge 1097 

on h6rn heo bar an honde 1131 

J?e wind him bleu wel wide 1536 

The more one studies the alliteration in our poem, the more evi- 
dent does it become that most of the alliteration which does occur 
in King Horn argues against reading its lines as three-beat verse 
and in favor of finding there the native two-stress free-rhythm. 

§ 4. Further evidence for our thesis may be adduced from a 
comparison between the movement of Horn lines and that found 
in lines or half-lines of other Middle English poetry which is 
clearly in stress-verse. If we suppose the Horn couplet to be 
simply a regular Middle English expansion of the old four-stress 
long-line (and not, as Schipper teaches, a rather oblique develop- 
ment of the native line into a kind of three-beat verse), how should 
we expect it to appear? As a Middle English version of the 
national rhythm, the unit half-line or short-line would show great 
liberality in introducing unstressed syllables in the mid thesis ; it 
would make free use of anacrusis ; it would show not only sec- 
ondary syllables of compound words but also full words (often too 
of considerable logical significance though not primarily important) 
under secondary stress in lines of the D and E types greatly ex- 
panded beyond Anglo-Saxon forms. All these results Luick's 
investigations have taught us to expect in any Middle English 
reproduction of the national free-rhythm. And just these three 
natural expansions of the old half-line, — initially, medially, and 
at the end — and nothing else, are what we have been finding in 
the short lines of King Horn as we scanned them for two-stress 
verse. But as a matter of fact will the lines of King Horn f so 
scanned, be rhythmically like the half-lines and short-lines of the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ? A broad comparison between 
our poem thus read and the later national verse, both unrimed and 
rimed, has produced results establishing the absolute likeness of 
rhythmic movement in the two cases. Some examples illustrative 
of this comparison are to be found right before us in Schipper' s 
manual. Note the following : 



COMPARISON OF HORN WITH ALLITERATIVE VERSE. 41 

Whon Joseph herde J?er-6f | he bad hem not demay^en 

Jos. Arith. 31 [Metr. p. 79]. 

Horn j?erof m^t h§rde | til o day ]?at he ferde 

K. Horn 961/2. 

Bot on the Cristynmes daye | whene they were alle semblyde 

Morte Arth. 70 [ibid]. 

Hit was at cristesmasse | nei)?er more ne lasse 

K. Horn 821/2. 

To "bores and to brockes | Jrat br6keth adown myne hegges 
Piers. PI. B. VI. 31 [ibid., p. 84]. 

]?e children ^ede to tiine | bi dales and bi dune 

K. Horn 157/8. 

LiystneJ?, Lordinges | a newe song ichulle bigynne 

Simon Fraser [ibid., p. 91]. 

A song ihc schal 30U singe | of Mtirry J;e kinge 

K. Horn 3/4. 

Further illustrations corroborating our supposed two-stress 
rhythm of King Horn may be most profitably presented under 
four heads. There are indeed only four sorts of lines in King 
Horn for which parallels seem needed to win acceptance of them 
as two-stress verse. 

Case I is seen in — 

and mest he luuede tweie 26 

* \e, king ahjte of stede 49 

J?er heo seruede gode 77 

gr6t J>u wel mi moder 146 

for)? he clepede A]?elbrus 229 

in heorte heo hadde wo 267 

Besides the two primary words (often substantives) there is a third 
word (as an intermediate finite verb) of considerable significance. 
We must show that in such cases the third word may remain in 
the metrical thesis. 



42 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Case II is seen in — 

if Horn is hoi and sunde 1365 

wij? Horn J?at wes so feir and fre 264 H + 

in a chirche of lym and ston H 905 

Horn tok biirdon and scrippe 1085 

Rymenild to k6pe ant loke 768 H 

This subordination of one of two co-ordinate nouns, adjectives, or 
verbs must be paralleled. 40 

Case III is seen in — 

Horn in h6rte la^te 247 

Horn to hauene ferde 773 

Rymenhild on flore stdd 545 

and fot on stirop sette 780 

J?at (hire on J>i londe cam 810 

M6di mid streng];e hire hadde 1065 

Horn hi of londe sente 1361 

)>q kni^t him aslope lay 1327 C 

While a finite verb is in the Germanic sentence regularly subordi- 
nated to a descriptive adverb, yet for this subordination to an 
adverbial phrase parallels may be demanded. 

Case IV. An infinitive is subordinated — 

(a) initially : and bere kinges crtine 1310 

to speke wi]> Kimenild stille 291 

ligge by Horn j?e kynge 1312 OH 

(6) medially: Horn bad undo softe 1091 

a kni^t ligge in felde 1326 

(c) finally : Ailbrus gan A]?ulf lede 297 

Horn gan his horn bio we 1395 

and Horn me>ie to singe 610 

and H6rn let teres stille 696 

*°This accentuation was not unknown even in the older times (see Sievers, 
§ 23, 3, d). 



COMPARISON OF HORN WITH ALLITERATIVE VERSE. 43 

Horn under wuele l^e 1180 

and prestes masse singe 1406 

Fikenild er dai gan springe 1433 

]?at nl^t Horn gan swete 1441 

The subordination, or even reduction to the thesis, of the infinitive 
(which in grammar is a substantive) in the initial, medial, and final 
positions must be paralleled ; or one might insist that most such 
lines must be read as three-beat verse. 

The reasonableness of our scansion under Case I is established 
by the following parallels : 

First, from the later alliterative verse without rime — 

Or dere thinken to doo ■ Alex. A. 5 

J>at on was called erenus • Alex. B. 526 

Where-fore we holde 30U folk • ibid. 627 

He takis a Boll of bras ■ Alex. C. 55 

)?en tyd it anes on a tym • ibid. 478 

and see further Alex. B. 444, 492, 527, 623, 703, 808, 847 ; 
Alex. C. 473, 576, D text 811+ D 834+ 1076, 1121, 2165, 
2498, 5092 ; Wm. Pal, 155, etc. 

Second, from the rimed alliterative verse — 

At J?at grene J?ay la3e & grenne Sir Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 464 
The date na langar may endure Gol. & Gaw. 1228 

God hase sent me this grace Au\ Arth. 127 

and see further Sir Gaiv. & Gr. Kn. 515, 1451 ; Rout. & Vern. 
569 ; Sir Perc. 2015, 2051, 2202, 2219 ; Sir Degr. 409, 610. 41 

For Case II we notice first Sievers 7 scansion of similar lines in 
the Heliand [AUg. Metr., p. 43] : 

41 Note further King James' scansion of this line from Montgomery — 

Fetching fude for to feid it | fast furth of the Farie 

Schipper, G. E. Aletr., p. 110. 



44 THE VEESIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

giboran bald endi Strang 
stigun sten endi berg 

Similarly in Middle English we find — 

To legge lym o]mr ston • 

J?at lieuene holde]; & haj> • 

Of hard hongur and J>irst • 

Oure boundis ere barrayne & bare 

Mad & merked as a Mieere • 

Pelour, pirre, ne perle • 

J>at so louelicke lay & w§p • 

& hetterly bo)?e hors & man • 

and see further Alex. A. 543 ; Alex. B. 801 ; Alex. C. 1, 372, 
592, 707, 1557, 2050, 2220, 2806, 2876, 3017, 3214, 3387, 
3573, 4208; Wm. Pal. 204, 699, 1811. 

And in the rimed alliterative verse — 

A gr6ne hors gret & J?ikke Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 175 

knight, squyar and knaif Gol. & Gaw. 1010 

In firth, forest and fell ibid. 1357 

fifter thame baith fer and n&ir R. Coil. 348 
His nose was a fot & more \ 
(His browe as brestles wore) i 

Strokes bi sex & seuen ibid. 818 





599 




3117 


Alex. B 


. 438 


ibio 


I 642 


Alex. B. 


1029 


Alex. C. 3582 


ibid. 


3921 


ibid. 


4036 


Wm. Pal. 50 


ibid. 


1243 



Boul. & Vern. 479/0 



and see further Sir Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 564, 966, 967, 1204, 1205, 
1919 ; Gol. & Gaw. 6, 198, 1230; Boul. & Vern. 81, 170, 657, 
708 ; Sir Perc. 949 ; Sir Degr. 82. 

Of Case III examples seem infrequent in the unrimed allitera- 
tive poetry. However, cases are found ; as, for example — 

Let them j?at in heuin bee • Alex. A. 1088 

But in the rimed alliterative poetry there are many examples ; as — 

His haj?el on hors watz J?enne Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 2065 

Quhilk beirnis in Britane wair Gol. & Gaw. 607 



COMPARISON OF HORN WITH ALLITERATIVE VERSE. 45 

& fisches in |?e fl6d to b& Roul. & Vern. 741 

The helme one his hede scho sett Sir Perc. 1358 

His stede es in stable sett ibid. 945 

The kyng to Carebedd es gane ibid. 1062 

The wayte appone the walle lay ibid. 1214 

Bot buskede thame and to b6dde 3§de ibid., 1607 

The I6ttre in his hand he nome Sir Degr. 125 

Wyne in condyt rane ibid. 1850 

and see further Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 2503; Gol. & Gaw. 618, 880, 
1009; Sir Perc. 946, 1266, 1458, 1462, 1687, 2061, 2078. 

Examples of Case IV, the subordinated infinitive, are to be found 
much more frequently in some texts than in others ; but the range 
of its occurrence is quite broad enough to prove it to be a legiti- 
mate subordination. 

(a) The initial infinitive : 

In the unrimed alliterative poetry — 

Too bee J?eir d.6reworthe Duke ■ Alex. A. 431 

To maken hem comelokur corn • Alex. B. 407 

La-tt se J?i Witt in ]?is werke • Alex. C. 5194 

To make }>aim fr6ke to J?e fli^t • ibid. 5521 

To flay with flanes of J?e fowlis • ibid. 5448 

To bring J?at barn in bale ■ Wm. Pal. 134 

and see further Alex. B. 873 ; Alex. C. 1260, 1261, 2149, 2163, 
2236, 2654, 3132, 3278, 3359, 5533 ; Wm. Pal. 1387 ; Rich. 
Redel. Pr. 29, 52, 79, I. 69, 104, II. 45, III. 287, 318, IV. 25. 
In the rimed alliterative poetry — 

To ryd \q kyng wyth croun Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 364 

To mak you lord of your avne Gol. & Gaw. 147 

To drye my paynes in this place Awn. Arih. 128 

and see further Sus. 245, 320; Gol. & Gaw. 828, 1074, 1199, 
1218 ; Awn. Arth. 388 ; R. Coil. 128 ; Sir Perc. 127 (holde), 
395 (make), 1058 (fare), 1164 (make), 1430 (ryde), 1629 (bryng), 



46 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

1935 (do), 2171 (make); Sir Degr. 15 (sette), 59 (breyng), 86 
(hue), 174 (honte), 175 (breke), 213 (yeff), 491 (breng), 633 
(tell), 1051 (se), 1251 (juste), 1343 (spek), 1409 (tell), 1454 
(rynge), 1455 (waken), 1498 (se), 1595 (speke), 1859 (scrye). 

(b) The medial infinitive : 

In the unrimed alliterative poetry — 

Hut chaunce is to haue a childe • Alex. A. 667 

And ordans aiquare ouire all • Alex. C. 3408 

];at J?ou may merote haue & menske • ibid. 5226 

and see further Alex. 0. 180, 575, 2053, 2948, 4848 ; Bieh. Bedel 
Pr. 28 (give). 

In the rimed alliterative poetry — 

And pray it him to abyde none B. Coil. 284 

Quhilk gome suld gouern the gre" Gol. & Gaw. 698 

and see further Sir Perc. 427 (be), 1641 (be) ; Sir Degr. 86 (her), 
155 (do), 1043 (be). 

(c) The infinitive at the end of the line or half-line : 

J?e folke of Ph6cus too araie • Alex. A. 365 

J?at no wi^th mi^t William se" • Wm. Pal. 758 

& iwadest )>i men me binde • ibid. 1247 

wanhe ];6mperour sei^h William come ■ ibid. 1262 

It semyd as ]>e cite to s& • Alex. C. 1528 

And in the rimed alliterative poetry — 

Syr Gawen his I6ue con nyme Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 993 

J>e dele his matynnes telle ibid. 2188 

Ladys likand to se Gol & Gaw. 373 

Al J?at mi^t armes bere Boul. & Vern. 80 

Sende me grace Jns cite to winne ibid. 200 

)^at schuld spaine to cristen bring ibid. 345 

Charls dede J?at ymage falle ibid. 347 

And he wold j?ere no lengere duelle Sir Perc. 1351 



COMPARISON OF HORN WITH ALLITERATIVE VERSE. 47 

and see further Sir Gaw. & Gr. Kn. 176, 2235 ; Awn. Arih. 259 ; 
Sir Perc. 2146 (be), 234 (say), 282 (bee), 358 (dry), 363 (do), 
446 (be), 462 (be), 483 (be), 711 (mayne), 775 (make), 831 
(bene?), 963 (wyn), 1015 (fare), 1118 (be), 1462 (ga), 1514 (brene), 
1687 (lighte), 2178 (ryde). 

As supplementing the above four sets of two-stress parallels to 
the King Horn line, we may exhibit some selected heavy D and 
E ** type half-lines with Luick's accentuation [in Anglia XI and 
and XII and in the Paul's Grundriss, II] : 

Even from the conservative Destr. of Troy frequent examples 
may be taken ; like — 

Byg yndghe vnto b£d • 397 

Mynors of marbull ston ■ 1532 

J?at turnys as J>ere tyme cdniys • 424 

By thies rialles aryven were ■ 1074 

Qwerfore vs qwernes noght • 1928 

But MSdea mouet h}m • 986 

The mighty Massidon Kyng • 313 

And out of Luick's examples from other poems we select — 

What death dry[e] j>ou shalt Alex. A. 1067 

Hur ^ates ^eede ]>ei too ibid. 304 

Hur God grathliche spake ibid. 562 

A ston stiked [e] J?erin [ne] ibid. 830 

]>is king carpes anon[e] ibid. 693 

Hondes hendely wrought ibid. 187 

Gainus grounden aryght ibid. 292 

Stones stirred they J>6 ibid. 293 

]?e seue]?e a knyf cauhte Jos. Arith. 577 b 

)>i 16rd Jris lyf Men ibid. 663 b 

the stSrres ben on e>the throwun Friar D. Topias 9 
That n6ne unto it adew may say Dunbar, Tic. Mar. W. 48 

"Luick calls many of them A's with inner secondary stress. 






48 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

and see further Luick's types of lines (half-lines) in Piers Plow- 
man [§ 42 of the article in Angl. XI] . 

Other examples of half-lines or short-lines, notably expanded 
and with heavy secondary stresses, but still to be read in the old 
two-stress rhythm will be found: in Alex. A. 7, 181, 182, 186, 
242, 254, 270, 287, 300, 306, 341, 433, 481, 646, 698, 856, 
998, 1205 ; in Alex. B. 287, 365, 422, 496, 649, 848, 928, 952, 
967, 996, 1013 ; in Alex. C. 259, 346, 467, 589, 603, D text 
746+ 899, 914, 3167, 3276 (cf. D text), 3930; in Rich. Bedel. 
Pr. 76, I. 69, II. 40, II. 72, III. 142, III. 203 and 309 ; in 
Wm. Pal. 77, 1643; in Gol. & Gaw. 379, 411, 420, 705; in 
Awn. Arth. 206, 426 ; in B. Coil, 75, 205 ; in Boul. & Vem. 
404/5, 480 ; in Sir Perc, 1826, 1875 ; in The Feest 325. 

Surely the lesson of these later poems in the two-stress (four- 
stress for the long-line) movement must open a welcome way of 
escape from the lawlessness of King Horn as read by Schipper 
with now two stresses, now three, and now four in its short line, 
but with a prevailing movement that makes of it nothing but a 
bad three-beat verse. If Luick and Schipper freely admit Sir 
Perceval into the native free-rhythm, what is there to bar out King 
Horn f One subtle objection may yet be advanced, to which the 
following chapter will be devoted. 



DISSIMILARITY BETWEEN HORN AND LATER FREE-RHYTHM. 49 



CHAPTEK VI. 

The One Dissimilarity Between the Verse of King Horn 

and the Later Free-rhythm. § 1. 
The Preservation of a Recurring Shorter Line in the 

Later Free-rhythm Not Due to Conservatism. 

§2. 
The Earlier Lyric Proves the Shorter Line in the 

Cauda to be Due to Rime Couee. § 3. 
Comparison of King Horn and The Luxury of Women. § 4. 
How the Native Free-rhythm Could be Cast into 

Rime Couee without Systematic Alliteration. 

§5. 
King Horn the Natural Outcome of Anglo-Saxon Ten- 
dencies and its Author's Environment. § 6. 

§ 1. After all the foregoing evidence for simply a two-stress 
rhythm throughout King Horn there may yet remain one appar- 
ently reasonable doubt. For all that has been said, there is a 
marked dissimilarity between the Horn and the later free-rhythm 
poems : in that later verse to its last development it seems nowhere 
to lose the traditional difference between first and second half-lines. 
The later romancers who wrote in free-rhythm either used the 
whole long-line with its distinct half-lines linked by alliteration, or 
when employing in full independence the short-lines that came 
from the resolved long-line, they have formed not a continuous 
verse but a cauda stanza : that is, they never fail to round up at 
regular intervals pairs or triplets of fuller short-lines with a con- 
cise one. They compose in periods expressed not only by the 
rime-sequence (a a b etc., or a a a b etc.), but also by the logical 
finality of every third (or fourth) line as compared with the sus- 



50 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

pense of the preceding lines : 43 and therefore we find, even in the 
self-sustaining short-line, the old distinction maintained between 
the briefer second half-line and the fuller first half-line. 

In order to meet the argument from this disparity of rhythm 
against the admission of King Horn into the direct native tradi- 
tion, one might say that, just as in the case of alliteration, so here 
we find that in proportion as the later epic forms in stanzas ap- 
proach nearer and nearer to the unstanzaic 44 form of King Horn, 
the continuous epic in equal short-lines, steadily the ratio of un- 
levelled second half-lines to expanded and levelled short-lines 
decreases. The fourteenth century alliterative line unrimed keeps 
very faithfully the old-time difference between first and second 
half-lines. But just as soon as rime is put upon the long-line (as 
in the opening lines of the thirteen -line stanza), there appear an 
ever increasing number of second half-lines quite as full as their 
companion first half-lines. Finally, when an epic form of greater 
swiftness was desired, use was made of the two-stress short-lines 
that had arisen out of released half-lines supplied with rime in the 
cauda ; 45 but the moment the short-line reaches its maturity in 
passing from the dependent cauda to the self-sustaining cauda 
stanza it takes on a general enlargement : so that at least the 
longer lines, representing old first half-lines, become exactly like 
the lines of King Horn (or even more expanded than the average 
Horn line) as our paralleling above demonstrated. And, more 
than that, the proportion of fuller lines to shorter ones is always 
on the increase : in The Feest, Rouland & Vernagu, and the Dis- 
ticha Catonis it is two to one (rime-sequence a a b etc.), but in Sir 
Perceval and Sir Degrevant it is three to one (rime-sequence a a a b 
etc.) There was needed a single step further in this direction to 
produce a continuous verse made up entirely of equalized short- 



43 Luick has shown that in Middle English the long-line became a logical unit 
as well as a verse unit ; in this respect Middle English poetic style differs from the 
run-on character of Anglo-Saxon poetry. 

**Wissmann indeed supposed that K. Horn is made up of four-line stanzas 
( Unters. p. 63 and Lied V. K. H. p. xix). 

* 5 See Luick, Angl. xn, 440, and Schipper, § 57. 



PRESERVATION OF SHORTER LINE NOT CONSERVATISM. 51 

lines — to which the poet had but to affix couplet rime in order to 
make the rhythm of King Horn. 

As, however, this mode of reasoning may appear superficial and 
unconvincing, we shall face from quite another point of view the 
question why King Horn surrendered the distinction between 
second and first half-lines, a distinction not only graphically main- 
tained in the later stanzaic shapes, but there aesthetically felt, as 
Luick so finely observed in studying the inner structure of the 
lines of the cauda and cauda stanza. 

§ 2. Luick has admirably described the cauda in free-rhythm ; 
but it is patent that he has not explained its shape, in discovering for 
us that it is made up of two (or three) short-lines of a character 
like the unreleased first half-line plus one short-line of a character 
like the unreleased second half-line. Why does the later poet use 
just tioo or three released first half-lines against one released second 
half-line? And in keeping this one second half-line was it his 
intention to conserve even among the short-lines he now has the 
time-honoured tradition of his national verse in its long-line form ? 

Both Luick and Schipper, in dealing with the stanzaic verse in 
free-rhythm, employ a very natural order of presentation : they 
treat first the large stanza with cauda and afterward the cauda 
stanza. But, of course, it does not follow that there was chronolo- 
gical sequence here : that is, we are not to draw the inference that 
the latter developed directly and only out of the former. 46 How- 
ever convenient Schipper's arrangement is for making a clear 
exposition of Middle English verse forms, it would be manifestly 
wrong to suppose that the cauda stanza of short verses in free- 
rhythm came by origin and as an independent English develop- 
ment out of the long stanza with cauda. 

Without doubt the external shape both of the dependent cauda 
and of the independent cauda stanza is due to imitation of French 



46 A loose reading of Luick' s article in Anglia xn, certainly suggests this : note 
especially the sentence [p. 440], "Aber man ging in diesen eigentiimlichen 
bildungen noch weiter." Luick' s statements on the development of the cauda and 
cauda stanza are so brief and general that we have gone into the subject somewhat 
fully, and have attempted to carry his discovery in the cauda further than a mere 
description. 



52 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

stanzas in rime couee (simple or enlarged), equally so whether the 
inner movement of the English verses is free-rhythm or beat-verse. 
The operating cause therefore which kept a shorter among the 
longer lines of the native short-line rimed verse, was something 
quite far from any desire of the poets to preserve the traditional 
difference of the old first and second half-lines. We cannot read 
either the sober Sir Perceval and Sir Degrevant or the jocular Feest 
beside Chaucer's parody of Sir Thopas without believing that their 
similar outer form (the stanza unit being two or three longer lines 
followed by a shorter one) came with their rime-sequence (a a b 
etc., or a a a b etc.), directly to all four of them from the same 
source. Hence the presence of regularly recurring shorter lines in 
the cauda stanza of free-rhythm is to be explained, just as we ex- 
plain the corresponding lines in the same stanza of beat-verse : it 
is due purely to the influence of the rime-sequence chosen ; for the 
rule for rime coue*e demanded a shorter line in the b-rime. 47 And 
just so for the long thirteen-line stanza in free-rhythm, we must 
explain the shape of the cauda itself as in origin the natural out- 
come of the enlarged rime coute that the poet was applying to his 
released short-lines : the foreign stanzaic mold was sure to turn 
out a shorter line in the fourth place, whether or not the poet had 
any thought of maintaining the old difference between the two half- 
lines even after they were set free. 

§ 3. That rime couee is the real cause of the external form of 
the fourteenth century free-rhythm cauda and cauda stanza can be 
readily demonstrated from the earlier lyric in free-rhythm : because 
there caudae are found in another rime-sequence, and simultane- 
ously in a shape other than two or three fuller short-lines, followed 
by a concise short-line. In the early lyric, moreover, we can find 
stanzaic forms approaching rather closely to the continuous epic 
form of King Horn, because of the application of a rime-sequence 
less removed from the Horn couplet than is the rime coute of Sir 
Perceval and Sir Degrevant. And at the very beginning of this 
line of study we find Luick saying of the rimed alliterative lyric, 

47 Such at least was and is the popular French and English usage : of course an 
equal or a longer line could be used. 



LYRIC PROVES SHORTER LINE DUE TO RIME COUEE. 53 

"Die Unterschiede zwischen erster und zweiter Halbzeile sind 
weniger scharf ausgepragt, gewohnlich ist nur die grossere Fiille 
des Auftakts fiir die erstere kennzeichnend " [PauPs Grdriss. 
II, 1018, § 50]. Schipper makes the same comment [p. 88]. 

When in the early lyric a cauda is appended, if it is in rime 
cou£e, it takes the form of two fuller short-lines (Luick's detached 
first half-lines) followed by one concise short-line (a detached second 
half-line). For example, the poem of Simon Fraser has this cauda 
to its second stanza : 

wi]? Loue. 
whose hate}? soth ant ryht, 
lutel he doutej? godes myht, 

j?e heye kyng aboue. Boddeker, p. 126. 

The concluding stanza has the cauda in enlarged rime couee : 

Tprot, scot, for ]>i strif ! 

hang vp J?yn hachet ant ]?i knyf, 

whil him lastej? J?e lyf 

wij? ]>e longe shonkes. Ibid., 134. 

Schipper gives the first stanza of the poem [p. 91] ; but in that 
one the difference between the cauda lines is less than in almost 
any other cauda of the piece. 

Again the Satire on Ecclesiastical Courts [Boddeker, p. 109 and 
cf. Schipper, p. 90] , composed in eighteen-line stanzas, has caudae 
in enlarged rime couSe with much greater conciseness of the final 
line as against the three preceding ones. Further, in the poem on 
the Rising of the Flemish [Boddeker, p. 116 and cf. Schipper, 
p. 90] the whole stanza is in enlarged rime cou&e, thus — 
aaabcccb; and the longer lines (a's and c's) are intact long- 
lines, while the shorter lines are of two stresses but with a fullness 
quite equal (compare e.g., 11. 32, 36, 40, 80, 88, 96) to the a-lines 
of the later epic cauda and cauda stanza in rime couee. 

On the contrary, in the early lyric, when the cauda is not in 
rime cou^e, it may take a quite different shape from the cauda that 
is so rimed. Especially suitable for examination here is the poem 



54 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORX. 

on the Luxury of Women. To each stanza is appended a cauda of 
three lines, riming simply a a a with no rime-linkage to the body 
of the stanza ; and the three cauda lines are of successively increas- 
ing volume: thus [Boddeker, p. 106], — 

In helle 

wij? deueles he shulle duelle, 

for J?e clogges J>at cleuej? by here chelle. 

19 f. (end of St. 3). 

This is an average cauda of the poem : for in the one Schipper 
gives [p. 90] the last line is overfull. Here we see that in the 
absence of rime couee, there appears a structure other than the 
sequence of two detached first half-lines plus one such second half- 
line. 

§ 4. There is though another feature of the stanza under exami- 
nation which renders it peculiarly interesting for our attempt to 
interpret rightly the rhythm of King Horn. The body of the 
stanza shows hardly any distinction of first and second half-lines ; 
and this has happened as an easy consequence of the rime there 
employed. The four long-lines have a form of leonine rime, by 
which the four first half-lines rime together, while the whole lines 
are riming. Examine Schipper's stanza [p. 90] ; or take the 
following section of the last stanza of the poem [Boddeker, 
p. 107] : 

^ef ]>er lyj> a loket by er ou)?er 63 e, 

|>at mot wij? forse be fet for lac of o)?er le^e. 

J>e bout & ]?e barbet wyj? frountel shule fe3e ; 

Habbe he a fauce filet he halt hire lied lie^e. 11. 29 f. 

When we look down these columns of half-lines, they appear 
strikingly like the Horn short-line except that the one, forming 
part of a shapely stanza, plies the same rime four times, while 
King Horn is rimed in couplets. Let us now write out the corre- 
sponding section of another stanza of this lyric, as if we had the 
long-line actually resolved into short-lines ; and this we may the 
more readily do because there are but four instances (11. 1, 8, 10, 



KING HORN AND LUXURY OF WOMEN. 55 

15) of alliterative linking in all the twenty long-lines of the poem. 
We get thus [stanza 3] : 

ffurmest in boure 

were boses ybroht ; 

Leuedis to honoure 

ichot he were wroht. 

vch gigelet wol loure, 

bote he hem habbe soht ; 

such shrewe fol soure 

ant duere hit haj> aboht. 11. 15 f. 

Put beside these lines the five two-stress short-lines of the poem, 
noting the expansion assumed as soon as the half-line is released 
to become a short-line : 

schulde shilde hem from sunne 7 

vch a screwe wol hire shrude 13 

J?e deuel may sitte softe 27 

]>at heo be kud & kuewe 34 

and 1. 20, for the clogges . . is given above. 

Then read the following passages from King Horn : 

king, cum to felde 

for to bihelde 

hu we fi^te schulle 

and togadere go wulle. 

ri^t at prime tide 

hi gnnnen lit ride 

and funden on a grene 

a g6aunt swij>e kene 

his f6ren him biside 

]>e day for to abide. 11. 867-76 



hi sloven and fu^ten 



56 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

]>e 1113 1 and J>e 113 ten 48 

J?e sarazins kende : 

ne lefde non in J?ende. 

Horn let werche 

chapeles and ch6rche. 

he made belles ringe 

and pastes masse singe. 

he so3te his m6der halle 

in a roche walle. 

he k6ste hire and clepte 

and into castel s6tte. 

Crime he gan w6rie 

and makede f§ste merie. 

nierie lif he wro^te 

Rimnild hit d6re bo^te. 11. 1399-1414 ; 

Is not the movement of King Horn when thus read quite as 
clearly a two-stress rhythm as the verse of this satire ? If it be 
objected that only in the caudae of the lyric are to be found two- 
stress units as expanded as the lines of the Horn, the reply is that 
in strictness the Horn line should not be compared with half-lines 
where the long-line is still felt as a unit. The two-stress short- 
lines of this lyric show us the greater fullness which that poet too 
would immediately have allowed himself if writing wholly in 
short-lines. 49 Besides, we have already sufficiently paralleled the 
longer lines of King Horn with examples from the later epic in 
two-stress short-lines [cf. p. 40 f. foregoing] . One cannot doubt 
that the author of the Luxury of Women would have cast his poem 
into a form rhythmically identical with the Horn verse, had he 
been writing in continuous, swift (that is, in short-lines) epic style 
instead of composing a stanzaic lyric. 

The Middle English lyric in the native rhythm, belonging to 

45 This is, according to Schipper, the one couplet of two-stress rhythm in the 
whole poem. See p. 9 foregoing. 

49 For abundant illustration of this sort of leonine rime applied to long-lines of 
much greater fullness than those of this lyric, see the free-rhythm plays in the 
Towneley cycle [cf. Schipper, p. 99 f.]. 



FREE RHYTHM CAST INTO RIME COUEE. 57 

the latter half of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the 
fourteenth, coming thus before [cf. Schipper, p. 87 § 50 — "Die 
friihesten "] the fourteenth and fifteenth century epic composed in 
thirteen-line stanzas with a cauda or in longer or shorter cauda 
stanzas, proves conclusively that in this epic the shape of the 
stanza's cauda and of the cauda stanza has grown out of the 
influence of rime couSe (which everywhere was against levelling), 
and is not due to any effort on the poet's part to preserve the old 
distinction of first and second half-lines, even after the original 
long-line was resolved into two short-lines. The early satire on 
the Luxury of Women shows us the long-line not yet resolved ; 
but already the leonine rime used to link the half-lines has levelled 
them, 50 just as it has caused the author to dispense with linking 
alliteration, and to use interior alliteration only so much as he 
chose. 

§ 5. Luick's discovery of the inner structure of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth century epic cauda enabled us at last to get a true 
description of it. Not deceived by the external form and the 
foreign rime-scheme of those caudae and cauda stanzas, he had the 
keenness to detect in them the old free-rhythm with the interesting 
difference that the longer verses were released first half-lines, and 
the shorter verses were released second half-lines : he showed that 
with the curving of the outer shape of the cauda simultaneously its 
inner structure varied. And from a study of the earlier lyric 
beside the later epic we come to see that the particular curve of 
the cauda when in rime couie was forced upon the poet by the rime- 
sequence he had chosen. We can now understand how the native 
rhythm could maintain itself even in so distinctly foreign a mold 
as the rime couee stanza of short verses. This imported mold 
demanded a recurring shorter line : but in the native free-rhythm 
there was still a keen feeling for a recurring shorter unit to con- 

30 For another example of the levelling of the half -lines, even while the long- 
line was still intact, see the Poem on Earth [E. E. T. S. 29, p. 96] : here are long- 
line couplets. Again in the early drama, as the Toivneley Plays, are to be found 
copious illustrations of the passing of the old distinction between the half-lines after 
the free-rhythm was put into rime. See also Luick, Anglia, xn, 439, on Basyn 
and Simon Fraser. 



58 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

elude the long-line ; because the fourteenth century unrimed 
alliterative verse shows a strong and consistent preservation of the 
traditional distinction between a full first half-line and its comple- 
mentary brief second half-line. Then an English poet, disliking 
the rigidity of beat- verse, desiring to compose still in his free- 
rhythm, and yet wanting to avail himself of the pretty stanzaic 
forms of the short beat-verse, had but to string together two or 
three of his longer two-stress units (so easily taking about the 
volume of the four-beat line), and conclude a verse period with his 
short two-stress unit (so easily taking about the volume of the 
three-beat line). 51 The aesthetic delicacy of the poet is seen though 
in the perfect way he adapted his native verse-swing to the foreign, 
fixed shape : where his model stanza demanded merely a briefer 
line, he put the briefer line of his resolved national verse, that is, 
the released second half-line. And behold ! without suffering any 
damage the English rhythm has gone all the way from its original 
form, the alliterative long-line, unrimed and unstanzaic, to the 
short-line cast into the stanzaic mold of rime couee. 

While therefore in the fourteenth and fifteenth century rimed 
epic of short-lines in free-rhythm, like Sir Perceval, a distinction 
of a concluding released second half-line as against two or three 
released first half-lines is intended by the poet, and is felt by a 
sympathetic reader, nevertheless it was, as the earlier lyric has 
taught us, purely the accident of the outer form and no ultra con- 
servatism of the poets which suggested the retention of this ancient 
distinction. Already in the second half of the thirteenth century 
released half-lines supplied with rime as short-lines possessed no 
iuherent ability to resist levelling. And when the author of King 
Horn chose for his poem a continuous verse in couplet rime, his 
verse form inevitably led him away from the preservation of a 
shorter line among his longer lines ; he had no need for a released 
second half-line to round out a group of released first half-lines. 
The final rhythmic difference between Sir Perceval and King Horn 
is thus demonstrated to be due to causes other than a supposed 

51 Luick shows the free-rhythm cauda stanza lapsing finally into four-beat and 
three-beat verse [see Anr/lia . xn, 413-445]. 



HORN THE NATURAL OUTCOME OF ENVIRONMENT. 59 

conservatism which the native rhythm displayed even to its last 
development. That by this conservatism the free-rhythm always 
made itself recognizable, although cast into rime, is no longer a 
tenable presumption against the probability of a systematic two- 
stress rhythm in King Horn. 

§ 6. The different environment of the author of Sir Perceval 
was, we shall now say, the sole reason why that epic did not 
assume the continuous form of King Horn. Remove the cause and 
the effect vanishes : this we do the moment we put ourselves back 
into the early part of the thirteenth century. Just so surely as 
one strong tendency of Late Middle English verse, even though in 
the native free-rhythm and falling in a period of an ardent revival 
of alliteration, was toward stanzaic structure and rime cou6e, quite 
as certainly the prevailing tendency of Early Middle English verse 
was to remain in the continuous epic form of Anglo-Saxon poetry, 
although it was then a period of the fall of alliteration due to a 
two-fold cause, indigenous development and foreign influence. 
And the foreign form most inviting imitation in that earlier day 
was the French octosyllabic couplet, also a continuous epic form. 
Not less than the author of Sir Perceval, did the author of King 
Horn conform to his environment : but for the latter the environ- 
ment was doubly toward producing exactly what we find according 
to the present argument; namely, a verse of free-rhythm short- 
lines without systematic alliteration but adorned with rime, in 
continuous form but riming in couplets. 

Schipper's exposition of late Anglo-Saxon tendencies in his 
paragraphs on " Ubergangsformen " [Kap. 3, s. 54 f.] shows 
plainly that, by the foreshadowed systematic addition of rime to 
the half-lines with accompanying disregard of linking alliteration, 
it was into a continuous short couplet that the native verse itself 
was tending already before the Norman Conquest. Schipp'er even 
goes so far as to say, " So darf man wohl annehmen, dass der 
Endreim auch ohne die Einfiihrung der normannisch-franzosischen 
Poesie in England dort allmahlich in Gebrauch gekommen ware, 
wenn es auch nicht zu leugnen ist, dass er erst durch das Yorbild 
der franzosischen Poesie daselbst popular wurde" [p. 55-6] . The 
French poetry came ; and it too had a short couplet : so that when 



60 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

English literature revived from the shock of the Conquest, and the 
English poets were ready to begin again where they had left off in 
their native epic style, a rival foreign form 52 was present, posses- 
sing such attractiveness that the majority of the English poets 
turned quite away from their native free-rhythm and imitated the 
inner structure as well as the outer ornament of the French octo- 
syllabic couplet. Thus arose Genesis and Exodus, the Owl and 
Nightingale, and Haveloh, and all their successors. 

The author of King Horn was a Southerner, living amidst the 
French influence ; and one might have expected him also to write 
in the four-beat couplet just as did Mcholas de Guildford. But 
our poet with a literary nicety comparable to the later authors who 
invented the free-rhythm cauda perceived that he could produce a 
continuous epic couplet in free-rhythm, quite satisfactory to the 
sympathetic native ear. Layamon had been either too careless or 
too conservative, our romancer perhaps thought, and had accord- 
ingly missed the desirable adornment of systematic rime : one 
could avail himself of this new and popular fashion, without 
cramping his poetic matter into the rigid beat- verse. Thus this poet 
did successfully keep his free-rhythm while adding systematic 
rime to it ; however, at the same time, he relinquished all attempt 
at regular alliteration. 

But, after all, what we get in King Horn according to our 
theory, is but a sudden development, no doubt by the suggestion 
of the French octosyllabic couplet and its English imitations, of 
the tendency of the last Anglo-Saxon verse to discard systematic 
alliteration in favor of rime as the means of linking the half-lines, 
and thus to produce a long verse with leonine rime or a short 
couplet of levelled short-lines. The Anglo-Saxon Rime-song, 
though a performance premature and hyperbolic, shows the 
probability that English poets even without the quickening in- 
fluence of French verse forms would inevitably have moved on to 
the production of epic verse like that in King Horn. And of one 
of the songs in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (year 1036) Ten Brink 

52 Of course Latin influence also was present, and popular Latin forms were 
imitated : Orm, for example, chose the septenary. 



HORN THE NATURAL OUTCOME OF ENVIRONMENT. 61 

said that it reads " almost like a poem in short couplets." 53 It 
may then be safe to say that, but for this natural growth support- 
ing it, a couplet in free-rhythm could not have maintained itself on 
unassisted logical stress, as King Horn does : it would otherwise, 
in all probability, have needed to underprop its stresses with 
alliteration, as was very generally done in the later rimed verse of 
the period of revived free-rhythm. 

Could Schipper but have turned away completely from " Otfrid 
in England," and been as liberal-minded toward King Horn as he 
is to the later rimed and unrimed verse in free-rhythm [see how 
all the way through §§ 47 to 61 he grants licenses of expansion 
and heavy secondary stress], he too, we believe, would have 
treated the rhythm of the Horn as simply the national, varying 
free-movement on two stresses ; and he would have described and 
scanned the prevailing line of this poem in some other way than as 
a "dreihebig," this is to say "dreitaktig" (recollect the "resp." 
of p. 89) verse. We shall quote against him one more sentence 
from his admirable Grundriss : of the " ungleichmassigsten " form 
of Piers Plowman, and particularly of its very expanded lines, he 
says [p. 84] — "Dass auch solche Verse nur zwei Hebuagen in 
jedem Halbverse haben, wenn sich daneben auch starker betonte 
Senkungen bemerkbar machen, unterliegt keinem Zweifel und wird 
namentlich dadurch erwiesen, dass in der Kegel auf solche 
erweiterte Verse ein normaler Vers folgt, der den allgemeinen, 
vierhebigen Ehythmus wieder klar hervortreten lasst." This is 
precisely our contention for the Plorn couplet. 

And against Luick's finding King Hoim to be the perfected form 
of the " Otfrid verse " in England, we can do no better than to 
quote his own words on the stanzaic Sir Degrevant, the lines of 
which are very like the Horn line. It is to be understood of 
course that in place of his first two suppositions we should for the 
unstanzaic King Horn suppose : first, the " Otfrid in England " 
scansion of our poem as a four-stress (or Germanic four-beat) 
verse; and second, Schipper's three-beat reading of it — for in 

53 Ten Brink, Hist, of Eng. Lit. transl. by Kennedy, I, p. 97. 



62 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

these two theories of the Horn verse we have reached no more 
satisfying results than Luick attained in his tentative experiments 
on Sir Degrcvant. Luick asks, after presenting a stanza of the 
latter poem [Anglia, xn, 440] : " Was fur ein versmass liegt hier 
vor ? Da die reimstellung die der Schweifreimstrophe ist, konnte 
man versucht sein, die langeren verse 4- die kiirzeren 3-taktig zu 
lesen ; aber man wird sehr bald die unmoglichkeit dieser scansion 
erkennen : ein kleiner teil der langeren verse liesse sich zwar so 
fassen, die mehrzahl ist aber eutweder gar nicht in dieses schema 
zu- bringen oder nur, wenn man vielfach fehlen der senkung 
annimnit, wahrend sonst in diesen balladen ziemlich regelmassig 
hebung und senkung wechselt. Die kiirzeren verse fugen sich gar 
nicht. Auch wenn man versucht, diese zweitaktig, die langeren 
dreitaktig zu lesen, kommt man zu keinem befriedigenden rhyth- 
mus ; ausserdem sind derartige sclrweifreimstrophen im Mittel- 
englischen gar nicht belegt (Schipper, Metr. I, 353 f.). Yergleicht 
man nun diese verse mit den friiher besprochenen [i. e. the cauda 
verses of the epic free-rhythm thirteen-line stanzas] , so erkennt 
man sofort, dass wir hier dasselbe metrum vor uns haben : den 
zweihebigen vers." 54 

In our argument on King Horn the "verses before spoken of" 
are represented by an array of parallels from late Anglo-Saxon and 
from the whole expanse of the later Middle English alliterative 
poetry, rimed and unrimed. We therefore similarly conclude that, 
despite the absence of systematic alliteration in King Horn to 
point out more plainly the two stresses, nevertheless by its 
unmistakable logical stress the verse is a short-line in free-rhythm ; 
and the couplet is a pair of original half-lines, rimed and levelled 
by expansion : so that we have on the whole the effect of a con- 
tinuous series of released first half-lines. 

Surely we have an affirmative answer to our third question 
[Chap. II, p. 11] for testing the soundness of Schipper's interpre- 
tation of the verse of King Horn. All the historic presumption 
to be drawn from the native verse before King Horn, and all the 

54 Luick' s next sentences are quoted p. 32 foregoing. 



HORN THE NATURAL OUTCOME OF ENVIRONMENT. 63 

evidence we can gather from the later verse that is generally 
acknowledged to be in free-rhythm, combine with what we our- 
selves feel in reading the poem, to bring to us the conviction that 
the Horn short line is a short-line, a two-stress verse in free- 
rhythm. There was, we assert with confidence, no reason for 
Schipper's attempt at a " dreihebig " distinction, which in the end 
he could not maintain ; and his actual three-beat scansion appears 
in our judgment as antecedently improbable and as unnecessary in 
theory, as it is found to be deplorably unsatisfying in practice. 



64 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Seven Types of the King Horn Verse. § 1. 
The Horn Hypermetric Lines. § 2. 
Percentages of the Several Types. § 3. 
Management of Alliteration in King Horn. § 4. 
Conclusion. § 5. 

§ 1. Head King Horn as one reads Anglo-Saxon, with atten- 
tion to the logically significant words and in obedience to the very- 
frequent alliteration, and all the lines of the poem (with exception 
of the insignificant percentage to be considered in § 2) will readily 
flow into the Middle English two-stress free-rhythm. Of this 
rhythm there appear in the Horn seven types. 

Type A[(x)xxx(x)x X ]is the dactylic-trochaic 55 type, pre- 
senting four varieties. 

Type B [x (x)xx (x) x] is the iambi c-anapestic type, pre- 
senting four varieties. 

Type C [x (x) x (x) x x] is the iambic-trochaic type, pre- 
senting five varieties. 

Type D [(x) x (x) x (x) x (x)] is the bacchic-cretic type, 
presenting six varieties. 

Type E [(x) x (x) x x (x) x] is the bacchic(cretic)-mono- 
syllabic type, presenting two varieties. 

Type F [x x x x (x) x] is the dactylic-anapestic type, having 
but one form. 

Type G [x x x x x] is the anapestic-monosyllabic type, having 
but one form. 

55 In using such descriptive terms (obviously crude and quite inexact) for want 
of any better — till somebody invents appropriate names for the Old and Middle 
English verse units — I am following the lead of Professor Cook : A. S. Cook, 
First Book in Old English, Boston, Ginn & Co., 1894, 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 65 



The Horn Types— m C Text. 
Type A 

I A 1 (x) xxx (x) X X 

The A in simple form (that is. without any secondary stress) 
is the prevailing verse-type of King Horn. 

(1) Horn is mi name 1286 
Knfjt wij? J?e beste 1348 
Chapeles and chlrche 1408 
Ailbrus gan lere 241 
Wyn for to schenche 370 
LeTdi my qn6ne 350 
Sore y me diite 344 
Help me to kni^te 435 
Go wij? ]?e ringe 1201 
Eedi to fijte 1230 
Horn for tabide 1482 56 

(2) Al ]>at he him seide 380 
W6rdes swibe bolde 375 
Horn beo me wel trewe 377 

(3) Sende me in to biire 394 

(4) Rymenhild him gan bihelde 1159 

(5) Rymenhild he makede his quene 1557 

(6) At eureche dtinte 609 
Hi sloven kyng Mdrry 1357 



57 



56 An A contracted to purely trochaic form occurs once in — Horn let w&rche, 
(1407) ; but not another example of this is to be found — unless one reads Payns 
as one syllable in — Payns ful ylle (1338). 

57 Direct titles are to be read always as proclitic or enclitic to the name and having, 
if any, only secondary stress : hence, — child Horn, sire Horn, king Modi, seinte 
Steuene, sire King, seint Gile, king Murry, king Aylmare, maide Reynild, Horn 
child, AJ>ulf child, Ailmar king, Godhild quen, AJnilf kni3t, Horn kni3t, and once 
Aylmar >e kyng (219) and piirston J?e kyng (993). Similarly one reads moder 
child (648). But when the title has an article and may be considered a noun 
with the name in apposition to it, both title and name receive stresses : thus — 
>e king piirston, >e king Murry, J>e king Aylmare, J>e king Mody, a maiden 
Rymenhild, \>e maister kinge. This mode of accenting is fixed by alliteration in 
the completely alliterative poems ; for example, 



66 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 





He si 63 ]?er on haste 


615 




pe king sede sone 


483 




Hi fonde under schelde 


1321 


(?) 


In to tmcube londe 


733 




For if J?u were aliue 


107 




He schal wij> me bileue 


363 




He uerde horn in to halle 


625 


(8) 


Ihc schal J?e take to wyue 


560 


(9) 


And J>arto mi tr£u)?e i ]?e pl^te 


672 


(10) 


Bi dales and bi dune 


210 




At Rymenhilde bure 


1472 




Fram horn J>at is of age 


1346 




On hundred bi J?e laste 


616 




pe kyng aros amore^e 


845 


(11) 


Gunne after hem wel swfye hl^e 


890 


(12) 


And tok him abute ]?e sw6re 


404 


dA (*; 


1 X x x (x) X X 




(1) Kni^tes and squiSr 


1123 




Rod on his pleing 


32 




Toward ]?e castel 


1504 




Ltiuede men horn child 


247 



>e d£re king dindimus Alex. B. 249 

the mighty Massidon kyng Destr. Troy 313 

It is assumed that the full Christ name is to be treated similarly : hence, Jesu 
Crist (80, 84, 148, 1324). 

It may also be stated here that a comparative study of the proper names in our 
poem has brought the writer to the conclusion that secondary stress in proper 
names is noticed by the author of King Horn only in the rime. [See Sievers' 
rule : the secondary stress in proper names is weak, and may be used or ignored 
in the verse. Altg. Metr. § 78. 2 (p. 125)]. The only exception one is disposed 
to admit here is the word suddene, which could very well be still understood as a 
compound, A-S. SvfS-Dene. In other cases though one easily disregards the 
possible secondary stress when the name, whether of a person or a place, falls in 
the body of the verse : hence we are to read And pat ofoer Fikenild (26), but And 
fi/cenylde />e werste (28) ; King of Westernesse (157), but Bi westernesse londe (168). 

In like manner the potential secondary stresses in all other words, except com- 
pounds still felt as such (like schirt-l&ppe, nomcln, cristenemen), is believed to be 
dormant in the verse until called up by the rime : so that, for example, we read 
Iwent into Jcnfyhbd (440), but And mi kntyhod prone (545) ; or And penke upon 
pi lemmoin (576), but Lemman, he sede, dere (433). 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 67 

panne is mi ]?ralhod 439 

(2) WSdden maide Reynild 1554 
Ajmlf fel a knes ]?ar 505 

(3) Wakede of hire swo3ning 444 
Fairer ne mi^te non ben 8 

(4) King Modi of Reynes 961 
And mid him his fiindling 220 
I went in to kn^thod 440 
pat 6n him het harild 767 
And herkne jus tyj?yng 814 
Heo louede so horn child 251 
And also sckolde horn do 268 

(5) So i rod on mi pleying 630 
pat was Ajmlfes cosin 1480 
He schal haue mi dubbing 487 

(6) Hi s6de hi weren harpurs 1509 
pat fair was and no^t undrn 1564 
To day after mi dubbing 629 
Nu hauestu Ju sweuening 726 
And J?6nke upon Ju leinman 576 

(7) For heo wende he were a glotoun 1136 

(8) And afterward be mi derling 488 

III e x A (x)xix (x) X X 

(1) Twelf feren he hadde 19 
God kni^t him biseniej? 486 

(2) pre cristene to f6nde 840 
Str6ng castel he let s6tte 1429 

(3) Tuelf fela3es wi); him wente 1360 

(4) So fair kni3t aryue 784 
And horn child to rowe 118 
A knijt hSnde in felde 1322 
For horn kni^tes lore 1548 

(5) And a god schup he htirede 756 
Til i stiddene winne 1298 

(6) Hys schirt-lappe he gan take 1217 



68 



THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



(7) Ctyer sum man schal us schende 


680 


(8) 


And suJ>J?e com in atte gate 


1090 


IV e 2 A (x) X X x x (x) X X 




(1) Kynges sdnes tw£ie 


766 




Mani tyme and ofte 


1082 




Murie lif he w^te 


1417 




G6dhild quen }?e gode 


146 




Cristenemen m6$e 


182 


(2) 


Homes fader so hendy 


1358 




Sore wepinge and 3 erne 


1097 


(3) 


Irisse men to 113 te 


1016 58 


(4) 


Dai hit is igon and 6]?er 


187 58 


(5) 


At s6ue ^res 6nde 


737 




WiJ? g6de suerdes 6rde 


1524 




Mid spares ord hi st6nge 


1401 




A ring igrauen of golde 


1178 




WiJ> A]?ulf child he w6dde 


300 


(6) 


Alle riche mannes sones 


21 




And J?i fader dej> abele 


110 




And on hi^e rdde anhonge 


328 


(7) 


Wei f6or icome bi este 


1147 59 


Type B 






IB 1 X X | 


[x) XXX 





(1) pu art gr6t and str6ng 
And al quic hem fle" 
Nu is kni^t sire h6rn 
Ofts hadde h6rn beo wo 

(2) And alle his feren twelf 



93 

1394 
509 
115 
489 



58 Such A's, with more than one syllable between the first primary stress and 
the secondary stress, occur nowhere else in the m C text. 

59 A fifth A type, ed A, xxxx(x)xx, would occur once in Homes fader 
so hendy (1358) if we should accent the rime words here thus — hendy : Murry 
(1357/8). It seems better, however, to notice no secondary stress here, and regard 
this as an imperfect feminine rime, as one does with Mory : stordy 873/4, (com- 
pare Mody: blody 1263/4), hundred: wunder 1351/2, Bymenhllde: Kinge 1307/8. 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 69 

And in to halle cam 586 

To him his swerd he dro3 882 

pat ich am hoi and fer 149 

Heo fulde hire horn wij> wyn 1165 

(3) Also ihc 30U telle may 30 
He him ouertok ywis 1249 
bo fond heo ]?e knaue adrent 989 
Her endej? be tale of horn 1563 

(4) Hit was upon a someres day 29 
^ef ]?u mote to liue go 97 
bat he hadde for horn isent 990 60 

II B 2 x(x)xxxx 

(1) To horn he gan gon 1 1375/6 





And grStte him anon j 






Went lit of my bur 


325 


(2) 


To be kinges palais 


1276 




Al biside be way 


1326 




bat him answerede hard 


1080 




Of be wordes him gros 


1336 




For to kni^ti child h6rn 


480 




He was bri^t so be glas 


. 14 




bat he come hire to 


267 




^ef ure on sleh 3 our breo 


823 


(3) 


Wib muchel mesauentur 


326 




Bitwexe a j?ral and a king 


424 




J?er nas no kni^t hym ilik 


502 




Also ]?at hors mi^te gon 


1248 




bat Jesu crist him beo myld 


80 61 


B 3 x 


(x) X X X X X 




(1) 


Of wordes he was bald 


90 




And fulde him of a brtin 


1134 



60 The foregoing seven lines in (3) and (4) comprise all the lines in the m C 
text that show initial theses of more than three syllables — with exception of 11. 
324 (with its duplicate 710 ) and 1565 given below at B 3 (4). 

61 See note 57. 



70 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

In heorte heo hadde wo 263 

Hure horn heo leide adun 1133 

(2) Al wij? sarazines kyn 633 
Site stille sire kyng 813 
pat was stiward of his litis 226 
All ]>e day and al J?e ni3t 123 

(3) Of none diintes beon ofdrad 573 
As he nas neuremore ilich 1078 
He makede Bymenhilde lay 1515 
He hadde a sone J?at het horn 9 

(4) Ne wurstu me n6ure more l6of 324 
Make we us glade eure among 1565 

IV B 4 x(x)xxxxxx 

(1) And Ajmlf wtyute wund 1366 
Ac Rymenhild nas no3t ]?6r 523 
And J?ider J?u go al ri^t 699 
pat ne^ heo gan wexe wild 252 

(2) pu schalt haue me to J?i wif 408 

Type C 

I C 1 xx (x) XXX 

(1) Into yrlonde 1014 
For his meokn6sse 1534 
For J?e tijunge 1246 
And ]>e tr6w6ste 1010 
A3en J?re kn^tes 820 
And J?e kyng Mody 1263 
per heo knlf htidde 1210 

(2) After his comynge 1105 
Bute of pe king Mory 873 
Hi gunnen tit ride 858 
Hi dude adun J?rowe 1528 
And )?at scholde horn bringe 991 
He 3ede for); bliue 723 
He fond o schtip stonde 597 
pat to my song lyj?e 2 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 71 



(3) 


And into a strong halle 


1055 




Or he eni wif take 


553 




Hi leten J>at schiip ride 


136 




And hi^ede a^en bliue 


980 


II aC X (x) X X X X 62 




(1) 


WiJ? hej?ene honde 


598 




And wrong his lippe 


1074 




In beggeres rowe 


1092 


(2) 


Under couerttire 


696 




Under wude side 


1036 




Abute horn J?e ^onge 


279 




And his blod arise 


878 




On hire armes twele 


301 




Al of faire gestes 


522 




Of J?e maister kinge 


642 




Wi]> his swerdes hilte 


1458 




We be]? kni^tes 3onge 


547 


(3) 


Abute middelni^te 


1317 




Abute W6stern6sse 


214 




Hit was at Cristesmasse 


805 




In to min heritage 


1301 




Into his nywe werke 


1446 




And ihc J»e lord to wolde 


308 




And hu he slo^ in felde 


999 


(4) 


To fore ]>e sunne upriste 


1470 




Ihc habbe )?e luued stronge 


304 




He is under wude bo3e 


1243 


(5) 


He 3af alle J?e kni3tes ore 


1547 


III dC > 


: x x x x 





(1) Til hit sprang dai li$t 124 

62 This type Luick called BC. The use of the double capital would, however, 
tend toward confusion with Sievers' hypermetric types (Schwellvers — Altg. Metr. 
§95); and besides many of the lines in this formula have come by direct descent 
from the Anglo-Saxon C with resolved stress : for example — 

And do mi fader wreche (1304) 
from A-S. feeder (ux). 



72 THE VERIFICATION OF KING HORN. 



(2) Wfyute his twelf ferin 


1258 


(3) Biuore ]>e king Aylmar 


506 


Hit nere no fair wadding 


423 


(4) J>anne sede J?e kyng J>tirstdn 


32763 


IV eC X X (x) X X x x 64 




(1) I fond h6rn child stonde 


1193 


Durste hym no man werne 


706 


(2) Ne mi^te n6 man telle 


617 


Ne schal hit n6man d6rie 


792 


~Ne dorste him noman teche 


388 


(3) Ne mi^te hure noman wurne 


1098 « 


V adC x x (x) x x x x 66 




(1) And J?at 6]>er berild 


768 


Of J>at ilke wadding 


936 


For his gode teching 


1546 


Ef ]?u loke J?6ran 


575 


Til ]>e li^t of day sprang 


493 


He him spac to h6rn child 


159 


(2) And J?ine feren also 


98 


pat he me ^iue dubbing 


438 


And bed him b6on a g6d kni^t 


504 


He sede Lemman derling 


725 


He sede I6ue horn child 


1383 67 



TypeD 

I D 1 (x) x (x) Z X X 

(1) Scipes fiftene 37 

63 The foregoing five examples comprise all the d C lines in the m C text. 

64 The half-dozen lines in this formula might of course be classified as A's with 
anacrusis. It seems better, however, to call them C's because of the invariable 
unaccented opening (of from two to four syllables) and the presence of but one 
syllable between the two primary stresses. 

65 The foregoing six examples comprise all the e C lines in the m C text. 

66 Compare note 64 on the e C formula. 

67 The foregoing eleven examples comprise all the ad C lines in the m C text. 
Of course 11. 725 and 1383 might be treated as inquit lines (cf. p. 78) and would 
then be rated A's. 



68 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 73 



Horn adun li^te 519 

Alle )>reottene 163 

(2) AjmlfhisMawe 1101 
Schup bi J?e s6 node 139 
Horn gan his sw6rd gripe 605 

(3) King after king Aylmare 1532 
Mtichel was his fairhede 83 

(4) Ajmlfhesedefelaje 1461 

(5) Fikenhild me ha]? idon under 1463 

(6) At his tiprisinge 852 
On a god galeie 1020 
He dude horn inn late 1511 

(7) And hym wel sone answarede 42 

(8) Iborn in Siiddene ' 876 
pe heued of wente 610 

(9) And togadere go wulle 856 
pat Jm eure of wiste 236 

(10) For ihesu crist him makede 84 

(11) For Cutberdes fairhede 803 
Ihc telle 30U ti)?inge 128 
pe fiss J>at ]?i n6t rente 727 

(12) Wij? his yrisse ftl^es 1310 
}ef )>u cume to StiddSne 143 

(13) Of Rymenhilde wMdinge 1030 
Me J?inkJ? bi J?ine crois hjte 1331 
His sclauyn he gan dtin l§gge 1069 

II D 2 (x) x (x) x x (x) X 

(1) Fair and euene ldng 94 

(2) Mtirri ]>e gode king 31 

(3) Eymenhild on flore stod 529 
For)? he clupede a)?elbrus 225 

(4) Eymenhild litel wene]> heo 1473 



70 



68 No other examples of this particular subsubtype in the m C text. 

69 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 

70 Only three other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text (11. 10, 323, 
1567). 



74 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

(5) Rymenhild haue wel godne day 731 69 

(6) Rymenhild undude J?e dtire-pin 985 69 

(7) Horn rod Aylmar j;e kyng 219 69 

(8) Horn cam to J?tirston J?e kyng 993 69 
71 (9) 3^ue us alle his su6te blessing 1568 69 

(10) At horn lefte Fikenhild 647 
And dronk to J?e pilegrym 1166 
pe kni^t him aslope lay 1325 
pat on him het hajmlf child 25 

(11) And J?tis hire bij>6$te J>6 264 
He s6tte him on a stede whit 501 72 

(12) pat eure 3ut on j>i londe cam 794 73 

(13) pe children dradde J?erof 120 73 

(14) For he" is J?e faireste man 793 73 

(15) And J»t 6J>er Fikenild 26 
For a maiden Rymenhild 957 
Are hit come seue ni^t 448 

(16) pu schalt wi]> me to bure gon 286 
74 Awei tit he sede Me }>§of 709 73 

(17) pat was pe wurste moder child 648 75 

(18) Ne schaltu to-dai henne gon 46 73 

(19) And alle pat Crist leuej> upon 44 73 

(20) He makede him unbic6melich 1077 
And J?at hire J^te seue 3§r 524 73 

III D 3 (x) x (x) x' x (x) X X 

(1) Horn of Westernesse 956 

Tak J?e husebonde 739 

Apulf h6rnes broker 284 

69 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 

71 This line is one of the three examples (see note 76) in King Horn ( m C text) 
of "hovering stress" or "wrenched accent" brought about by the rime. 

72 Only five other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text (11. 248, 430, 
788, 1250, 1566). 

73 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 

74 Treating this as an inquit line (cf. p. 78), we should make of it a much 
simpler D 2 , x x x x x x. 

75 Only two other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text (11. 452, 1539). 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 75 

On wi)> }>r6 to f^te 838 

Horn in herte leide 379 

Horn nu crist J?e wisse 1493 
Horn is fair and riche 314 

(2) Crist to heuene hem lede 1562 
H6rn tok biirdon and scrippe 1073 73 

(3) H6rn and his company e 889 
Horn tok J?e maisteres heued 621 
Crist for his wtindes fiue 1465 
Crist ^eue god erndinge 581 76 
Fikenhild ferde aboute 1420 
Horn gan to schupe dra^e 1309 

(4) Ajmlf mi gode fel^e 1008 76 
Horn was in paynes honde 81 
Wyn nelle ihc mtiche ne lite 1143 
Horn makede Arnoldin J?are 1531 ^ 

(5) Rymenhild hit dere bo3te 1418 
King ]?at ]?u me kni^ti wolde 644 

(6) Fikenhild a3en hire pelte 1457 n 

(7) Rymenild was in WSsternesse 931 78 

(8) And horn n6war rowe 1108 
pat ni^t horn gan swete 1449 77 

(9) If horn c6me ne imjte 1214 
And horn mtirie to singe 594™ 

(10) And drof tyl Irelonde 762 
WiJ? swerd and sptires bri^te 500 
pat horn istorue were 1181 
To-ni3t me Jmder driue 1466 
To hSrte knif heo sette 1215 

(11) Of kni3te dentes so harde 872 79 

(12) Iarmed fram paynyme 811 

73 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text, 

76 These lines are the other two examples (see note 71) in King Horn ( m C text) 
of "hovering stress" or " wrenched accent" brought about by the rime. 

77 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 

78 Only two other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text (11. 366, 1441). 

79 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 



76 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

po sente heo a damesele 1183 

Adiin to J>e wtides ende 1228 

pe while hi togadere were 1378 

(13) Of Fikenhildes false tunge 1268 
A crowch of Jesu Cristes lawe 1324 
pe children alle asla^e were 88 80 

(14) Ihc am horn of w6stern§sse 1223 
Oj?er h6nne a J?tisend mile 319 
If heo 63 1 of horn ise^e 988 

(15) Whane J?e \i$t of daye springe 826 
And sede Quen so swete and d&re 1220 79 

(16) For-]?i me stonde]? |?e more rape 554 79 

IV eD 1 xxxxxxxx 

(1) To sle* wij? hure king ld]?e 1211 79 

V eD 2 x x (x) x (x) XXX 

(1) Ef horn child is h61 and sund 1365 79 

(2) pe g6de kni3t tip aros 1335 79 

(3) pi swete lemman Rymenhild 1486 79 

(4) To-day haj? ywSdde Fikenhild 1485 79 

VI eD 3 (x) x (x) x x (x) x x x x 

81 (1) H6rn kni3t he sede kinges sone 1483 79 

(2) His fader d§J> wel d6re hi t^te 894 

Min o^ene child my leue fbde 1362 79 
Type E 

I E 1 x (x) X X X X X X 

(1) pi lond folk we schulle sl6n 43 
In stiddene he was iborn 138 

(2) pat in stiddene was iboren 510 

II E 2 (x) X X x x (x) i 

(1) And his g6de kni3tes two 49 

80 Only four other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text (11. 22, 257, 571, 
645). 
79 No other examples of this subsubtype in the m C text. 
81 Bemoval of the inqv.it (cf. p. 78) would leave a very compact eD 3 . 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 77 

(2) Rose red was his colur 16 
H6rnes cdme hire jn^te g6d 530 

(3) And ifyulf kni^t ]>e biforn 532 
No leng abiden i ne may 732 

(4) pe gode stuard of his htis 1540 
To «3te wi]> upon pe feld 514 82 

Type F x x x x (x) x 83 

(1) Leue at hire he nam 585 
Godhild het his quen 7 

(2) Wordes J>at were mild 160 
Cutberd schal beo J?at on 828 

(3) Alle J?at were ]>erin 1257 
Rymenhild gan wexe wild 296 M 

(4) Aj?elbrus he makede ]?er king 1545 M 



Type G x x x x x 86 

(1) Oj?er al quic flen 86 87 

§ 2. Of the 1568 lines in the m C text of King Horn there are 
18 that cannot legitimately (that is, in conformity with the 
Germanic rules of sentence stress) be read otherwise than as 
verses of three full stresses. These are lines 119, 275, 331, 368, 
429, 655, 665, 790, 830, 849, 1171, 1199, 1204, 1373, 1384, 
1423, 1439, 1537 ; and they form 1.1 </ of the whole poem. 

82 The foregoing ten examples comprise all the E type lines to be found in the 
m C text. 

83 On this type see Schipper, Gfrdriss. E. Metr. , p. 85, and Luick, Anglia, xi, 404. 
It scarcely occurs in Anglo-Saxon: see Sievers, Altg. Metr., § 85. 8 (p. 134). 
Luick called it A 2 , thinking of it as a catalectic A. 

84 This line and the one following could be made E's by reading a secondary 
ictus in the proper name : but see note 57. 

85 Only seven other lines in Type F are to be found in the m C text (11. 85, 285, 
367, 407. 494, 1275, 1393). 

86 On this type see again Schipper, G. E. Metr., p. 85. Luick called this C 1 , a 
catalectic C. 

87 This solitary G line in the m C text is in all probability to be emended by 
inserting wolde, as Morris did (cf. 1. 1394 and mss. H and O at this point). We 
have let it stand as a separate type because this metrical form appears in other 
ME. texts. 



78 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Two of these lines are made hypermetric by the insertion of 
an inquit formula : 

H6rn sede : leT, Jnn ore 655 

Crist, qua)? horn, and seint steuene 665 

This inquit is really extrametrical, and not to be counted in 
scanning the verse ; and doubtless the minstrel in rendering the 
lay omitted such expressions altogether, indicating direct speech 
or change of speaker by a change of voice. 88 A third line — 

Sire king, of him ]?u hast to d6ne 790 

is rendered hypermetric by the vocative noun at the head of the 
verse ; for him is here used with demonstrative force, and hence 
has rhetorical stress. These three lines then fall apart from 
the other fifteen as having in them an extrametrical element, 
the removal of which would reduce them to perfectly normal 
proportions. 

The remaining 15 lines, just 1 fo of the whole m C text, must 
be handled frankly as three-stress Middle English hypermetric 
lines. 89 They are the following : 

Type A-A x x * x x (x) x x 

Horn and Ajmlf his fere 1373 

Horn tok Kymenhild bi )?e h6nde 1537 

Type A- a C x x (x) x x x x 

Horn was sik and d&de 1199 

H6rn dronk of h6rn a stunde 1171 

G6d 3eue his saule r6ste 1 204 

Fikenhild was prut on h6rte 1423 

Bymenhild was ful of m6de 1439 



Type A-D 1 



xxxxxxxx 



H6rn his brunie gan 6n caste 849 



88 See Skeat's Essay, p. xxxv; Luick, Anglia, xi, p. 438 and p. 597 ; Wissmann, 
Horn Untersuchungen, p. 53. 

89 On the Anglo-Saxon hypermetrical types see Schipper, Grdrss. d. E. Metr. , 
p. 48 f. ; Sievers, Altg. Metr., p. 135 f. ; Bright, Anglo-Saxon Header, p. 238 f. 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 79 

Type A— F xxxxxx(x)x 

Horn in herte was ful wo 429 

Horn in halle fond he ]?6 368 

Horn is fairer ];ane beo he* 331 



xxxxxxxx 



Type B-B 

pe stuard was in herte w6 275 

Type B- ad C xxxxxxxx 

3ut lyue]? ]>i moder Godhild 1384 90 

Type B-D 2 xxxxxxxx 

pe s6 J?at schtip so faste drof 119 

Type C-A x x x x x x x 

pe J?ridde Harild his br6)?er 830 

§ 3. A count of the various verse types through the whole 
of King Horn ( m C text), as scanned in the present study, produces 
results widely different from Schipper's metrical summary of the 
poem (Grd. E. Metr., pp. 71-2). In particular we find no such 
predominance of the A type as is asserted by Schipper in his 
statement that " the prevailing verse form " (a variety of A) 
occurs "in about 1390 verses out of the 1530 verses of the 
poem." 

According to our scansion of King Horn the number of lines 
in each type and subtype is as follows : — 

Type A— 867 11. : A 1 785, d A 44, el A 17, e2 A 21. 

Type B— 76 11. : B 1 19, B 2 22, B 3 27, B 4 8. 

Type C— 348 11. : C 1 39, a C 287, d C 5, e C 6, ad C 11. 

Type D— 234 11. : D 1 63, D 2 61, D 3 102, e D x 1, e D 2 4, e D 3 3. 

Type E— 10 11. : E 1 3, E 2 7. 

Type F— 14 11. 

Type G— 1 1. 

Hypermetric types— 18 11. Total m C text 1568 11. 

Proportionately considered, the several types as we have scanned 

90 Here lyue\> has rhetorical stress. 



80 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

the Horn are found in the following percentages (carried out to 
two decimal places) of the whole poem : 

Type A 55.29% ; Type B 4.84% ; Type C 22.21 % ; Type 
D 14.92% ; Type E .63% ; Type F .89 % ; Type G .06% ; 
Hypermetrics 1.14%. 

§ 4. The inquiry into the alliteration in King Horn, started in 
Chapter V, produced results that invite one to a systematic state- 
ment on this topic. As to what constitutes alliteration for the 
author of the Horn we assume that his phonology, like that 
appearing in late Anglo-Saxon 91 and in some Middle English 
alliterative texts, permitted : (1) all initial S sounds to alliterate 
together — so that st, sp, and sc (sk) are not limited to themselves ; 
(2) 3 and j and any g to alliterate together ; 92 (3) wh (older hw) 
to alliterate with w ; 93 (4) h -\- vowel to alliterate with vowels. 94 
And further, when a full word under heavy secondary stress 
shows the alliterating letter of the couplet or line, it seems hard 
to deny it participation in the alliteration. For example, 

Horn tok J>e maisteres h&ued 

pat he hadde him bireued. m C 621/2 

In this couplet who can miss feeling that heued joins in the 
alliteration of Horn and hadde ? Similarly in the following 

H6rn was in paynes honde m C 81 

Me jrfnkj? bi J?ine cr6is li^te 

pat )?u 16ngest to ure dri^te m C 1331/2 

91 See Schipper, Grdriss d. E. M., p. 39. 

92 The occurrences of these in the m C text are as follows : — 5 : j 1567/8 ; j : g 
1377/8 ; 3 : g 459/0, 482, 581/2, 1201/2, 1503, 1523/4. 

93 The occurrences of this in the m C text are: 11. 337, 365/6, 833/4, 923, 967, 
1143/4, 1163/4. 

94 Besides the phonetic grounds that would justify counting these combinations 
as alliteration, there is the further reason that if these are so counted the author 
has succeeded in alliterating his hero's name many more times than if he is limited 
to h : h ; and it is obvious that he desires to alliterate Horn as often as possible (cf. 
Wissmann, Horn Unters., p. 60). It may be noted further that a proper name 
beginning with a vowel is once at least spelled with h : ha\>ulf (25). In the m C 
text there are 22 single lines and 43 couplets showing h + vowel : vowel without 
other alliteration present. 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 81 

the heavy word under secondary stress can readily be felt as 
alliterating ; 95 and in the first line here given the presence of the 
name Horn furnishes additional reason for believing that honde is 
meant to alliterate. 96 

Now on this basis of alliteration for our poem there are to be 
found in the m C text of King Horn 657 lines showing alliteration. 
This makes (on Morris's total of 1568 lines) 41.9 ft. 97 

In applying alliteration thus extensively to his poem, the 
author has produced nearly all possible combinations of running 
the letter on his four primary stresses. 

I. Alliteration in the single line, marking the two primary 
stresses : as, 

Schtip bi ]>e se node. m C 139 

Earely (as stated above) a secondarily stressed word alliterates 
with a primary stress. 

II. Parallel alliteration in the couplet, according to the for- 
mula a • a-R : b • b-R (letting R stand for the rime). For 
example, 

On horn he bar an honde 

So l^e was in 16nde. m C 1121/2 

The other examples of this are found in m C 11. 11/2 (here allit. 
draws the stress from the preceding prep.-adv. to the vb. follow- 
ing), 98 265/6, 337/8, 597/8, 623/4, 963/4, 1037/8, 1221/2. 

III. Linking alliteration in the couplet. 

(1) Alliteration marks the two stresses not in the rime, accord- 

95 The theory here advanced, if applied broadly to Middle English poetry, may 
contribute something to Professor Bright' s doctrine of secondary stress in English 
verse. 

96 There are in the m C text 5 single lines and 9 couplets showing this secondary 
stress alliteration without other alliteration present : — 11. 81, 109/0, 120 (by means 
of drbf 119), 149/0, 155/6, 176, 393/4, 485/6, 517/8, 593/4, 1178, 1331/2, 1402 (by 
means of brd 1401), 1473/4. 

97 Any one who is pleased to rule out the h : vowel alliteration and the secondai-y 
stress alliteration will reduce the percentage to just 33.5%. 

98 Compare — 

Er the sun vp soght with his s6fte beames. 

Destr. Troy, 1901 



82 THE VEESIFICATTON OF KING HORN. 

ing to the formula a • x-R : a • x-R (letting x stand for any 
non-alliterating initial). This was the old rule of 1 and 3, when 
the first half-line had not double alliteration. 

Schlpes fiftene 

WiJ> sarazins kene m C 37/8 

In h6rnes ilike 

pu schalt hure biswike m C 289/0 

Let him us alle kni^te 

For )?at is lire ^te m C 515/6 

Wei sone bute ]?u flitte 

Wi)? swSrde ihc ]?e anhltte m C 713/4 

pi sorwe schal wende 

Or seue 3eres eiide m C 921/2 

pe king and his g6ste 

pat come to the ffeste m C 1233/4 

Ne schal ihc hit biginne 

Til i stiddene winne m C 1297/8 

He 3§de up to b6rde 

Wi> g6de suerdes 6rde m C 1523/4 

This artistic mode of ornamenting his verse-pair (and at the 
same time emphasizing his four stresses), making the one side of 
the couplet alliterate while the other side is riming, was evidently 
a favorite device with the author of King Horn. He follows 
this special formula in 72 couplets; and in 29 more couplets [to 
be described below under (2)] he brings one or both of the rime 
stresses (stresses 2 and 4) into the alliteration of the two non- 
riming stresses (stresses 1 and 3). 

(2) In a number of couplets the rime stresses participate in 
the alliteration of the two non-riming stresses. 

(a) The first rime stress, stress 2, joins in the alliteration of 
stresses 1 and 3 — formula a • a-R : a • x-R. 

Hy smyten under sehelde 

pat stime hit yfelde m C 53/4 

This is strictly in accordance with the old rule for double allitera- 
tion in the first half-line, stresses 1, 2 and 3 alliterating together. 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VEESE. 83 

There are 18 couplets running on this formula." 
(6) The second rime stress, stress 4, joins in the alliteration of 
stresses 1 and 3 — formula a • x-R : a • a-R. 

Wei f &or icome bi este 

To fissen at ]» feste m C 1147/8 

There are 10 couplets riming in this formula. 100 

(c) Just once both the rime stresses alliterate with the alliterat- 
ing non-rime stresses, producing the unique formula a • a-R : 
a • a-R. 

WiJ> swerd and sptires bri^te 101 

He sftte him on a stede whit m C 500/1 

There are thus, as appears under (1) and (2), to be found 101 
couplets (202 lines) alliterating on the basis of the old one-three 
rule. 

(3) Frequently there is alliteration of one riming stress with 
one non-riming stress. 

(a) The first rime stress alliterates with the second non-rime 
stress — formula x • a-R : a • x-R. 

In J?e curt and ute 

And elles al abute m C 245/6 

Mtirie was J>e fete 

Al of faire gSstes m C 521/2 

Hit was at Cristesmasse 

Netyer more ne lasse m C 805/6 

pe kn^t him aslepe lay 

99 mC text 11. 25/6, 53/4, 135/6, 243/4, 271/2, 379/0, 395/6, 571/2, 621/2, 759/0, 
767/8, 1125/6, 1247/8, 1319/0, 1365/6, 1429/0, 1479/0, 1511/2. 

ioo mC text 11. 145/6, 235/6, 335/6, 577/8, 609/0, 611/2, 679/0, 885/6, 889/0, 
1147/8. 

191 This is of course counted an alliteration of the rime stress ; for when the 
rime falls on a secondary stress the whole sound group (primary and secondary 
stresses together) at the end of the line is to be considered as forming a unit, just 
like a compound word with its initial in alliteration while its second component 
is in rime : e. g. — wymmanne ( m C 67) is simultaneously alliterating with wurst 
and riming with \>anne. 



84 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Al biside ]?e way m C 1325/6 

Bute ]>u wiile me scheVe 

I schal J?e to-hewe m C 1333/4 

This arrangement is in accordance with the old practice of 
alliterating stresses 2 and 3 (especially in Sievers' type A 3 ). It 
seems to have been a pleasing scheme to the author of King 
Horn, preferred by him next after his favorite order (a • x-R : 
a - x-R); for it appears in 61 couplets (122 lines). 

(b) The first non-rime stress alliterates with the second rime 
stress — formula a • x-R : x • a-R. 

pe daies were schorte 

pat Rimenhild ne d6rste m C 937/8. 

Hi sw6ren 6]?es holde 

pat neure ne Sch6lde m C 1269/0 

Sarazins blake 

pat dude me God forsake m C 1341/2 

This formula is followed in 37 couplets of the poem. 
(4) In 42 couplets the two riming stresses alliterate. 

(a) Alliteration of the rime stresses only — formula x • a • R : 
x ' a-R. 

I seche fram biwSste 

Horn of Westernesse m C 955/6 

This formula appears in 30 couplets. 

(b) Along with the two riming stresses the first non-riming 
stress alliterates — formula a • a-R : x • a-R. 

S6ie ich him bisSche 

Wi)> loueliche speche m C 453/4 

This formula appears in 7 couplets. 

(c) Along with the two riming stresses the second non-riming 
stress alliterates — formula x • a-R : a • a-R. 

He tok him ano)?er 

AJrnlf homes broker m C 283/4 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 85 

This formula appears in 5 couplets. 

(5) Finally linking alliteration in the couplet appears in the 
form of crossed alliteration. 

(a) Alternately crossed — formula a • b-R : a • b-R. 

pe kyng com in to halle 

Among his kni3tes alle m C 223/4 

This occurs in 7 couplets of the m C text, the other six being 
11. 365/6, 487/8, 717/8, 893/4, 903/4, 1215/6. 

(b) Inclusively crossed — formula a • b-R : b • a-R. 

G-6 wij> J>e ringe 

To Rymenhild )?e ^onge m C 1201/2 

This occurs in 8 couplets of the m C text, the other seven being 
11. 51/2, 505/6, 575/6, 829/0, 1259/0, 1351/2, 1375/6. 

IV. Alliteration linking successive couplets. 

This device was not unknown in Anglo-Saxon (at least in late 
Anglo-Saxon, see Schipper, G. d. E. if., pp. 41-2). In King 
Horn, however, a couplet verse where the sense generally ends 
with the couplet, one is uncertain whether to notice alliteration 
between successive couplets. There is though undoubted linking 
of couplets when one couplet begins with a word repeated from 
the preceding couplet : for example, 

Of Mtirry J?e kinge. 

King he was biwSste m C 4-5 

To3enes so vele schrewe : 

So fSle mi3ten e>e. m C 56-7 

Moreover two couplets occasionally are linked together by having 
the same alliterative initial run through both : as in 

Swerd hi gunne gripe 

And to-gadere smite. 

Hy smyten under schelde 

pat sume hit yfelde m C 51-4 



86 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

where besides the repeated word smite the letter s holds all four 
lines together. [Note incidentally the crossed alliteration in the 
former couplet.] And when the sense runs over the couplet with 
immediate succession of a stress having the same initial as the 
last stress of the preceding line, as in 

On a squieres wise 

To wtide for to pleie m C 360-1 

it seems impossible not to feel intentional alliteration. This 
correspondence of initials between couplets even appears as an 
apparently conscious crossed alliteration in 

And ^iue ]?e heuene blisse 

Of J^ine huseb6nde. m C 414-5 

If then alliteration is to be found linking successive couplets, 
of course there are three possible linkages : (1) the contact lines of 
a pair of couplets may alliterate ; (2) the corresponding lines may 
alliterate ; (3) the opposite lines may alliterate. Case (3) may be 
at once ruled out as impracticable ; for even in a verse of short 
lines alliteration could hardly be noticed from line 1 to line 4. 
Case (2) also seems quite doubtful : for example, in the lines 

per ne moste libbe 

per fr6mde ne ]>e sibbe 

Bute hi here l^e asoke m C 63-5 

does one perceive immediately an 1 correspondence? On the 
other hand, in the case of contact lines of successive couplets one 
can readily feel alliteration if stressed words have the same initial. 
Notice the following lines : 

(a) Oj?er al quic f len 

$ef his fairnesse n6re m C 86-7 

And of wit ]>e b6ste 

We beoj? of Siiddene m C 174-5 

A tale mid J?e beste 

pu schalt bere crtine m C 474-5 



THE SEVEN TYPES OF THE KING HORN VERSE. 87 

(6) WiJ> him speke ne mi^te 

Hire sor^e ne hire pine m C 260-1 

I went in to kni^thdd 

And i schal wexe more m C 440-1 
(c) And J?at is wel isene 

pu art gret and str6ng m C 92-3 

Wh6r he beo in londe 

Ihc am ibore to 16 we m C 416-7 

(<#) And duden hem of lyue 

Hi slo3en and tod^e m C 180-1 

On myn hond her ri^te 

Me to spuse holde m C 306-7 

Here are examples of the contact lines of couplets, having like 
initials to stresses 2 and 3 (in a), stresses 1 and 3 (in b), stresses 
2 and 4 (in c), and stresses 1 and 4 (in d) of the paired lines ; 
and in all these cases one could easily feel alliteration. 

If now one counts this correspondence of initials in the stresses 
of contact lines of successive couplets as an intended alliteration, 
the percentage of alliteration in King Horn will be considerably 
increased. In the first third of the poem (524 11. of m C) there 
are to be found 116 lines not alliterating in the couplet but 
showing intereouplet alliteration ; and these 116 lines added to the 
other 234 lines with alliteration (in the couplet or in the single 
line) make up a sum of 350 alliterating lines. The percentage 
of alliteration in the whole 524 lines is at once raised from 44 f 
to 66 f . 

§ 5. In conclusion it may be said that the present dissertation 
is simply an application to King Horn of the one way of scanning 
it not heretofore attempted. Wissmann's exposition of the Horn 
verse was the first systematic metrical study of the poem. He 
held that it was written in " Otfrid verse :" that each line was to 
be read with four stresses, the last stress often falling upon final -e. 
Schipper then combated " Otfrid in England ; " and for King Horn 
he threw out the fourth stress, especially when it was to be placed 
on final -e. He therefore offered a three-stress scansion of the poem. 



88 THE VERSIFICATION OF KING HORN. 

Now we have proceeded one step further, and shown how the whole 
poem may be read in a fundamentally two-stress scheme. Basing 
our argument upon the Sievers exposition of Anglo-Saxon verse 
and the Luick-Schipper exposition of the Middle English alliter- 
ative verse, we find essentially the same rhythm in the couplets of 
King Horn. 

In this process we are, we believe, not only producing a scansion 
of the Horn more satisfying than was either of the verse schemes 
formerly advocated, but we are also contributing toward the final 
banishment from the domain of English poetics of the Lachmann 
four-stress theory and all its descendants. By excluding from 
Middle English prosody the intrusive exotic form attributed to 
King Horn, — whether it was Wissmann's and Luick's "Otfrid 
verse " or Schipper's " dreihebig vers," — we open the way to 
show a natural and unbroken 102 development of the native English 
verse from Anglo-Saxon through Middle English into Modern 
English. With King Horn as a two-stress verse there appears a 
continuous and consistent metrical descent, from Anglo-Saxon 
times to Modern English, of a unit half-line and short-line in two- 
stress free-rhythm, doubled into a long-line rimed or unrimed 
moving freely on four stresses ; and in King Horn we see this 
native free-rhythm riming itself into a short couplet. 



102 Accordingly we do not accept Schipper's statement (G. E. M., p. 76) : 
" vermuthlich sind uns eben die Mittelglieder zwischen der alliterierenden 
angelsachsischen Langzeile strenger Kichtung des 10. und 11., sowieder entsprech- 
enden mittelenglishen Langzeile des 14. Jahrhunderts veloren gegangen." We 
hold that just those intermediate forms are found in the Proverbs of Alfred, the 
Brut, and King Horn. 

LOFC. 



VITA AUCTORIS. 



I was born in Baltimore, Md., on December 23rd., 1870. I 
passed through the city elementary schools, and for a while attended 
Eaton and Burnett's Business College. I then returned to the 
public schools, and went through the whole five year course in the 
Baltimore City College ; from which I was graduated with first 
honors in June, 1890. Intending at that time to make architec- 
ture my profession, I had simultaneously with my City College 
course attended the Maryland Institute of Art and Design ; and 
was graduated there, also in June, 1890, standing second in my 
class in the architectural department. During the following year, 
1890-91, I taught elementary subjects in the Zion (formerly 
Scheib's) English-German School in Baltimore. At the end of 
that school year I resigned; and in October, 1891 I entered the 
Johns Hopkins University with the purpose of equipping myself 
thoroughly for teaching. I chose the " modern language group " 
of studies, and devoted myself especially to English and German. 
The whole undergraduate course I secured on scholarships. 
Before the end of my freshman year I determined to get my 
degree in two years instead of the customary three. This I 
succeeded in doing : and in June, 1893 I was graduated with the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and was awarded a " university " 
scholarship for 1893-94. In October, 1893 I entered the gradu- 
ate school as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 
choosing English for my "principal" subject with History as my 
" first subordinate " and Philosophy as my " second subordinate." 
At the beginning of the year 1894 I gave up a large part of my 
university work in order to accept a position in the Baltimore 
City College ; and there I taught for nearly four yearfe. During 
that time, however, I maintained my connection with Johns 
Hopkins by attending such afternoon lectures as I could reach, 
particularly Professor Bright' s English seminary and Professor 
Griffin's lectures on modern philosophy. In October, 1897 I 

89 



90 VITA AUCTOEIS. 

resigned from the City College and returned to full graduate work 
in Johns Hopkins ; and throughout the two years since I have 
uninterruptedly pursued advanced studies toward the doctoral 
degree, taking in particular courses in English literature and 
linguistics with Professor Bright and Professor Browne, in Ger- 
manic philology with Professor Wood and Dr. Vos, and in history 
with Professor Adams. In May, 1898 I was appointed fellow in 
English for 1898-99. 

To all the university instructors under whom I have studied I 
feel greatly indebted : but to Prof. James W. Bright and to Prof. 
William Hand Browne I would make especial acknowledgment 
for stimulus and practical assistance toward the scholarly study of 
English. It was Professor Browne who first aroused in me, while 
an undergraduate, an intelligent appreciation of literary values ; 
and at his graduate lectures on modern English literature I have 
been greatly enlightened by his incisive criticisms. From Profes- 
sor Bright I have learned how to do research work in early and 
modern literature and in linguistics, and thus to establish the basis 
upon which alone a sound aesthetic criticism can be reared. 
Moreover with Professor Bright I have found that stimulating 
influence, communicated both by example and by precept, which 
is to be felt only with a scholar thoroughly abreast of all the 
progress in his chosen field. 

Heney S. West. 

Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, May 1, 1899. 



POSTSCRIPT ON GOING TO PRESS. 



Although the foregoing study was practically complete in the 
early summer of 1899, circumstances have until the present 
prevented me from turning it over to the printer. Even at this 
time I am precluded from verifying many of my references and 
quotations ; and I offer this apology for any mistakes that may 
be found. This dissertation should therefore be read as of the 
year 1899. As a matter of fact, however, such recent essays in 
Early English metrics as have come to my notice (for example, 
those by Schneider, Deutschbein, Miss McNary, Pilch, Saintsbury) 1 
have not affected my belief about the Horn rhythm. 

I take this opportunity to note also that since my study was 
made there has appeared an elaborate edition of King Horn, 

1 0. Hartenstein, Studien zur Hornsage, Heidelberg, 1902. [Not concerned with 
the verse of the Middle English King Horn. ] 

A. Schneider, Die Mittelenglische Stabzeile im XV u. XVIJahrhunderte, Halle, 
1902. 

M. Deutschbein, Zur Entwicklung des Englischen Alliterationsverses, Halle, 
1902. 

Sarah J. McNary, Studies in Layamon' s Verse ( New York University Thesis, 
1902), Baltimore, 1904. 

L. Pilch, Umwandlung des Altenglishen Alliterationsverses in den Mittelenglishen 
Reimvers, Konigsberg, 1904. 

G. Saintsbury, A History of English Prosody, Vol. I, London, 1906. 

Professor Saintsbury in his spirited excursion through Early English prosody, 
finds in King Horn a verse of which ' ' the hexasyllabic norm is unmistakable ' ' 
(pp. 70-1) ; and he expects his readers to see instantly how simple the Horn 
verse is by reading his short foot-note quotation from the M C text ( 11. 1205-24) 
wholly unscanned. One should not, however, expect so entertaining a writer, 
even in a big volume with a preface promise of two more following, to bother 
himself with details that might give to his racy pages the malodor of "so-itself- 
calling scholarship" (s. p. 28). And yet, just by the way, one cannot forbear 
noting that the little adjective lope (1. 1211) has in the professor's quotation 
been metamorphosed into a wicked king : for Professor Saintsbury here intro- 
duces to us the new character, King Lothe ! 

91 



92 POSTSCRIPT ON GOING TO PEESS. 

giving with abundant interpretative and illustrative matter a 
full print of all three manuscripts — King Horn : A Romance of 
the Ihirteenth Century, edited with Introduction, Notes, and 
Glossary by Joseph Hall (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901). Mr. 
Hall adopts Schipper's scansion of the poem. 

H. S. W. 

September 1st, 1906. 



